Move for online drugs sale irks chemists

With e-pharmacies raring to go and the government working on a regulatory framework for online sale of medicines, the eight lakh conventional retail medical shops in the country are alarmed.

Threatened by the government move to legalise online sale, the All-India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists has called a one-day shutdown on October 14 in protest.

“If the Union government does not take note of our protest, we will think of longer-term actions,” AN Mohan, national vice-president of AIOCD, told BusinessLine .

Mohan, who is also president of the All-Kerala Chemists and Druggists Association, said that if the online sale of medicines is legalised, the livelihood of nearly 60 lakh people employed by the medical shops will be at risk. He claimed that in a country where more than half the population is illiterate and where abuse and misuse of even prescription drugs are rampant, online sale of medicines would play havoc with public health.

While online sale is the norm in many advanced countries, Mohan noted, there are very effective checks and balances in place in those countries and the patients are well-informed. In the US, where drug bills are paid by the insurers who keep a watch on drug purchases so that misuse of drugs is minimal.

“India is several years away from such a situation,” Mohan claimed.

Following the increase in illegal online sale of drugs, the Drugs Consultative Committee had set up a five-member sub-committee headed by Harshadeep Kamble, Commissioner of Maharashtra’s Food and Drugs Administration, to go into legalising the online sale.

The committee, which is said to be in favour of the sale, has invited public views on the issue. The chemists and druggists believe that online sale will be legalised in a few months and that their livelihood will be threatened.

The biggest advantage of online sale is the highly reduced prices: the profit margins of distributors and retailers could be eliminated and the benefits could be passed on to the patients. The reduced prices are the main attraction of online retailing of consumer goods too.

“But, unlike in the online sale of retail consumer goods, which is fast growing in India, patients do not have many choices,” Mohan said. “Before buying medicines, the patient has to be diagnosed by a doctor, who in turn should prescribe the medicines.”

He feared that prescription-less purchase would shoot up and misuse of drugs would increase. Another risk was that multinational companies would take over the drugs trade in the country and, ultimately, patients would end up paying much higher prices.

“Our country is too premature for online sale of drugs ,” Mohan said.