 "Consultative committee on e-pharmacies recommend low risk drugs sale")
A recent consultative committee to assess online sales of drugs has recommended that low-risk medicines or non-scheduled drugs such as crocin, cough syrup and the likes could be sold online, a source in the know of the matter told Business Standard.
The source added that till the time online pharmacies prove that they can safely sell drugs and ensure that there is no misuse of drugs, high-risk medicines like oncology drugs will not be sold. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) plans to categorise drugs as low risk, medium risk and high risk which are to be sold online.
Further, the government will be working with other ministries like IT to form a centralised portal that will have a complete database of what is sold to ensure that misuse doesn't take place.
The CDSCO feels that there needs to be a fool-proof plan to make sure that consumers do not use one prescription twice or thrice to buy a drug. "It is about safeguarding our public from consuming habit-forming drugs," a CDSCO official told Business Standard. The source added that once the centralised IT platform is set-up, medium-risk and high-risk drugs can also be sold. The online pharmaceuticals also need to establish a track record till such a portal starts working.
These recommendations will be vetted by the health ministry after which the ministry of law and IT ministry will sit together and work out the modalities of the centralised portal which will be used to monitor online drug pharmacies. Patient help groups will also be part of the process.
Online pharmacies and state drug regulators, especially in Maharashtra have been at loggerheads. PharmEasy, a Mumbai-based start-up in the online pharmaceutical space has faced the heat recently. Some of its suppliers were sent license suspension letter of their services.