JAY JOSHI
Online sale of medicines in India has been a subject of debate for quite some time. The business is picking up in India but there are no laws regulating it. The government of India is currently contemplating easing the online sale of medicines, and has recently released a draft guidance for online pharmacies in the country.
Ordering medicines online will no doubt be cheaper for the customers, plus, you will not be able to buy the medicines unless you upload the relevant prescription. The deal looks easy and simple, but there are issues, says Raj Vaidya, owner of Hindu Pharmacy in Panaji. “There will be many websites selling medicines. What if the customer uploads the same prescription on a number of websites and binge-buys the medicines?” asks Vaidya. “When you buy regulated medicines from a pharmacy, we stamp the prescription, noting that the medicine has been dispensed. This makes it impossible for the patient to use the prescription elsewhere. How do you ensure such fool-proof mechanism with online sales? Further on, sometimes, the patient has some queries or the pharmacist has to give some instructions. Where is the space for such interactions in online scenario?” Vaidya says.
“Online sale of medicines is big in the US, but in other countries such as Germany, or Britain, it is heavily regulated. It can be done in the developed countries because they have a few companies, which makes it easier to centralise control. In India, there are six to eight thousand pharmaceutical companies” says Savio Figueredo, a pharmacy owner from Aldona, “ Doctors in a particular area prescribe medicines of the firm which is dominant in that area. We need to see how a centralised portal can supply all these medicines.” Another key issue is that of the doctors’ handwriting, quips Figueredo. “The local pharmacists can easily decipher the handwriting of the local doctor. How are these online people going to read what the doctors have written?” he asks, noting that sometimes medicines have similar-sounding names (eg Allergin and Allergil), and it involves considerable skill to find out what exactly the doctor has prescribed. How will the online portals figure out the exact name of the tablet?” he points out.
Mangueshi-based homeopathic medicine practitioner Dr Umesh Prabhu also cites a similar issue. “There has to be some mechanism to check whether the prescriptions uploaded by the customer are genuine. Local pharmacists will know the local doctor, and can check the genuineness of the latter’s prescription. How will the online sellers verify the authenticity of the uploaded prescription?” even though we suppose that the online portal has a list of the IMA registration numbers of the doctor, it may not hold the registration number of doctors from a small village, says Dr Prabhu.
From the viewpoint of a customer, Ponda-based insurance agent Vipula Prabhu has a different take. “The cheaper rates look attractive, but if they are offering medicines at low prices, they will probably compromise with the quality too. If I fall ill after consuming the medicine, who is accountable for it?” she questions “There is no human face, no human interaction, which is disturbing,” she says.
Online pharmacy is thus still an emerging sector, and the picture will only be clear after the government finalises regulations and guidelines for the business.
Key points in new draft guidelines
n Online pharmacy industry would have to seek one licence from the Drug Controller General of India.
n The license will be valid upto three years with a renewal fee of Rs 50,000
n The premises of the online pharmacy will be inspected periodically for every two years, according to the draft. It has also removed the proposal to create a central server that would route all online prescriptions to individual e-pharmacy websites.
n Online pharmacies will be regulated under the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945. They would also have to follow regulations like the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.
