Reaching a critical milestone in the generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) approval process, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy^® (NABP^®) application to own and operate the .PHARMACY domain suffix has passed the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) initial evaluation. NABP intends to launch the .PHARMACY gTLD by the end of 2013, and will make the new domain available to legitimate online pharmacies and related entities that are located in the United States as well as in other countries. Passing ICANN’s initial evaluation is a key success in realizing the Association’s vision – established in partnership with a global coalition of stakeholders – of creating a secure and trustworthy online space for pharmacy, benefiting consumers around the world.

Having reached this key point, NABP will now work toward operationalizing the .PHARMACY gTLD program, as it awaits the final stages of ICANN’s evaluation process. Next steps in the process include execution of the registry agreement with ICANN and performance of pre-delegation testing, which ensures that NABP and its technical partners have the capacity to operate the new .PHARMACY gTLD in a stable and secure manner.  

The full news release about NABP's .PHARMACY proposal passing the initial ICANN evaluation can be found in the Newsroom of the NABP Web site. More information about NABP and the .PHARMACY application is available in the Programs section of the NABP Web site.