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A pharmacist who imported unlicensed medicines from China has been warned by the General Pharmaceutical Council.

The regulator’s fitness-to-practise committee heard Alexander Philip Clarke purchased medicines from China without a legal prescription between June and October 2023.

The committee said “one or more” medicines from a list that included Semaglutide, Tianeptine, Nitrofurantoin, Amoxicillin and Baclofen had been purchased. It also heard Clarke consumed Tianeptine in August 2023, a prescription-only medicine which is not licenced for use in the UK.

He was employed as a commercial product operations manager at the life sciences company Sciensus at the time of the allegations, a role, the committee said, “that did not require him to practise as a pharmacist but relied on his knowledge as a pharmacist”.

The committee heard evidence from two pharmacists, one of whom said he became aware on October 13, 2023, that Clarke had purchased “a number of medicines” from a China-based website called Longilatbio.

The pharmacist sent a colleague an email on the same day in which he listed the medicines he believed Clarke had ordered. In his reflective statement to the GPhC, Clarke admitted purchasing the medicines but insisted he “had no intention of using or distributing the products” and said it “was a personal venture, motivated by curiosity”.

Clarke also admitted he “did not fully consider the professional and ethical implications” of his actions. “I have since realised how my actions trivialised stringent regulatory and safety frameworks governing medicinal products and could have put me in danger,” he said.

“The resulting disapproval of fellow pharmacists led me to deeply reflect on how my behaviour appeared to others. Their reaction humbled me, as it became evident that they expected the highest professional standards from me.

“More broadly, I recognised that the public perceives pharmacists as ‘gatekeepers of medicines’ and my actions did not align with the responsibilities associated with my profession.”

Clarke told the Committee that “bypassing lawful prescribing and the regulated supply chain” was wrong. He also admitted consuming a “product labelled as tianeptine from China without knowing its origin” was “a very serious risk”.

“I was very hesitant and tentative. It was a very poor decision,” he said, insisting he had undertaken “self-directed professional development” in 2024.

The committee ruled Clarke breached two standards covering pharmacists using their professional judgement and behaving in a professional manner. Taking into account he had “unequivocally accepted responsibility for what he did”, the committee gave him a warning which will be published on the register for 12 months.