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The Health Ministry is planning to meet e-pharmacy owners and company top brass as it looks to bring in stricter regulations to control the businesses. The push will primarily be towards e-prescription-based medicine delivery.
Incidentally, the Ministry had previously expressed its reservations on the legality of these businesses while mulling changes in the law towards regulating operations of such online pharmacies. Concerns have also been raised on issues such as maintaining patient data privacy and rampant use of prescription drugs (without proper documents).
The Ministry has also been contemplating a complete ban on the e-pharmacies.
“The current business model is not something that the Ministry is convinced of, and we have made our stand clear. A meeting is being planned with e-pharmacy owners and company top brass soon,” a senior health ministry official said.
Random discounting of medicines on the e-pharmacies — many of which call themselves aggregators — is something that the health ministry is concerned about and is also looking into.
India’s e-pharmacy market was pegged at ₹26 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach around ₹90 billion in 2027 with a CAGR of 22 per cent.
Under DCGI Scanner
Earlier this year, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) sent show-cause notices to 20-odd e-pharmacies that include big names like Tata 1mg, Amazon, Flipkart, NetMeds, Practo, Frankross, Apollo, among others.
The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 regulates the import, manufacturing and distribution of drugs in India.
In its notice, the agency said that sale or stock or exhibit or offer for sale or distribution of drugs through online, internet or other electronic platforms “without a licence have potential impact on the quality of drugs, and pose risk to public health” as there arises the problem of misuse of drugs through self-medication and indiscriminate use of drugs.
Also read: Parliamentary panel asks Health Ministry to speed up on e-pharmacy rules
According to the Health ministry, some of the then online pharmacies and platforms were found to be selling drugs that are not allowed for retail sale, without proper prescriptions from registered medical practitioners.
Some of the e-pharmacies had reportedly reached out to the Health ministry seeking more time to respond to the notices sent by DCGI.
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