Pills by post? German retail pharmacies and the Internet

The advent of Internet trading in medicines, as epitomized by the recently attempted market entry of the Dutch Internet pharmacy DocMorris into the tightly regulated German retail pharmacy sector, presents a new competitive challenge to this industry. Based on the findings of a 1999 field study of retail pharmacies in Berlin and Brandenburg and an examination of pharmacy Web sites, as well as pharmacy related professional portals and networks on the Internet, this paper applies Bickerton et al.’s framework of competitive forces to structure the analysis of attitudes and developments in the application of information technology in this sector.