E-pharmacies find themselves in a delicate situation in India, after what experts termed as a generally ‘unfettered’ run.
They are facing the heat for allegedly violating India’s drugs regulations while on the flipside specific draft rules pertaining to the sector haven’t been actioned for which a Parliamentary
Notify Rules, Says Parliamentary Panel
In late March, an Indian Parliamentary panel, following up on its report last year, highlighted that online sale of medicines in India had not been regulated “despite objections and concerns” raised by stakeholders.
It noted that no decisions had been taken on the recommendations made by Group of Ministers (GoM) and opined that the delay in such crucial policy matter is “not conducive to the fast-paced digital market”. The Prime Minister’s office had in 2019 constituted a GoM to further examine the details of the proposal to notify E-pharmacy rules and make suitable recommendations.
In 2018, India notified draft rules pertaining to the sale of drugs by e-pharmacies, including specifics around plans for “transaction audits” and periodic inspections of such pharmacies.(Also see "India Builds In Transaction Audits For Monitoring E-Pharmacies" - Pink Sheet, 5 September, 2018.)(Also see "India’s E-Pharmacy Rules – Balanced And A Leap Of Faith On Patient Data Security?" - Pink Sheet, 2 May, 2018.) Offline chemists and druggists associations had opposed these arguing that that approximately 800,000 chemists would be “out-priced” and go out of business. Among a string of other concerns, they also flagged up the potential of misuse of data available online with e-pharmacies
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