A coroner has raised concerns over the sale of prescription-only medication online after the death of a “thoughtful and caring” academic. 

Dr Kimberly Liu, 40, was found unresponsive at her London home by her husband on February 7 last year. 

A toxicology report numerous prescription-only medications in Dr Liu’s blood at the time of her death, including some that had not been prescribed by her GP. 

Coroner Ian Potter heard evidence that Dr Liu had become addicted to sleeping tablets, painkilling medication, and other medications with a sedative effect in the years before her death.    

From 2019 she had regularly accessed websites that sold prescription-only medications without the need for a prescription. 

These websites allowed repeat orders to the same buyers within minutes of each other. 

Messages from the websites after an order was placed revealed that they were deliberately avoiding regulatory suspicion. 

For example, one message after an order read: “This is to inform you that usage of the name ‘Sleeping Tablets’ during the payment at the banks is prohibited. Kindly do not use the brand name as it can be harmful for us. DO NOT MENTION THE PRODUCT OR WEBSITE WHEN MAKING PAYMENT.” 

Coroner Mr Potter said: “The concern here is that these websites, and potentially other similar websites, are not only operating without regulation, but that they appear to exploit already vulnerable individuals by facilitating an almost unseen feeding of dangerous medication addictions thereby placing those individuals in grave danger. 

“Although the inquest I heard did not concern a death by suicide, the additional concern is that these websites could also be seen to equip people with the means to complete suicide.” 

Mr Potter called for action to be taken to protect the public and on December 29 a prevention of future deaths report was published. 

He said: “I believe that consideration ought to be given to the impact that the availability of such websites has on the population at large, together with the significantly increased risks to those who have developed an addiction to such medications or may even be contemplating acts of self-harm. 

“I also believe that consideration ought to be given to whether and what action(s) could be taken to remove or limit access to or the availability of such websites.” 

Dr Liu studied at UCL as a PhD student in 2013, having obtained a BA at the University of Virginia. 

She then taught at in the Faculty of Laws at UCL for a number of years before going on to teach Employment Law at the London School of Economics and then Durham Law School.  

In a statement at the time of Dr Liu’s death Professor Colm O’Cinneide, who supervised Kimberly’s doctoral thesis at UCL remembered her as "a wonderful person: thoughtful, caring and possessed of remarkable intelligence". 

Professor Eloise Scotford, Dean of UCL Faculty of Laws, said: "The faculty is deeply saddened to hear of the death of Kimberly Liu, a highly talented and generous young legal academic. This is a loss felt by our entire faculty community, and a loss for legal academia."