empty"/nnOnline pharmacies are pharmacies which work over the net. Many such pharmacies are, in some ways, like community pharmacies; the main variety is the method which the meds are purchased and delivered. Some customers consider this to be more useful than going to a community drugstore.

While lots internet pharmacies sell prescription meds only with a prescription, some do not ask for a pre-written prescription. In some countries, this is because prescriptions are not required. Some customers buy drugs from such pharmacies to avoid the annoyance of visiting a doctor or to get meds which their medics were unwilling to prescribe. People living in the US may go to online pharmacies because health care and prescription medications can be prohibitively expensive. Numereous of these websites employ their own in house physicians to review the medication order and write a prescription accordingly. Some websites offer meds without a prescription or a MD review.

In the United States, there has been a press to legalize importation of drugs from Canada and a number of European countries, in order to reduce consumer costs. Frequently Americans gain lower-cost foreign meds by driving to Canadian pharmacies, buying their medications when traveling overseas on vacation, or, buying from foreign pharmacies that ship their orders via mail.