How can I find out whether I can buy medication without a prescription in a certain country?
- By
- Aparna Patel
- |
- 4 Aug, 2023
- |
The only way to find out is to check the government website for the country you are visiting. The situation can vary from time to time as drugs get reclassified by governments.
Usually there will be a government department of health medicines website, or the pharmacy regulator will have a website. Obviously many of these sites will be in local-language only.
In the UK for example, some drugs can only be prescribed by a hospital consultant and not by a general practitioner.
Your travel health insurer may have – or be willing to find out – for you. A travel health / inoculation centre may also have more information, but possibly not completely up to date.
I think a better solution would be to go to your doctor before the trip and ask for a prescription and a letter explaining the diagnosis and the need.
While in some countries a foreign prescription will be honored, in many it won’t, and then you’ll have to go to a local doctor (make sure your travel insurance covers it) to get a local prescription. That’s when a letter from your doctor may come in handy. Make sure its written in an international language (English/French/Spanish), preferably native to the areas you’re expecting to have troubles at.
I don’t think its possible to answer your question directly without knowing exactly what medicine you’re talking about.
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