 "Panel says only low-risk medicines can be sold online")
The source added that till the time online pharmacies prove that they can safely sell drugs and ensure there is no misuse of drugs, high-risk medicines such as oncology drugs cannot be sold online. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) plans to categorise drugs as low-risk, medium-risk and high-risk for drugs to be sold online.
The sub-committee, headed by Harshadeep Kamble, commissioner, Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration, is mandated to examine the sale of drugs through the intenet, and its impact on public health.
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Further, the government will be working with other ministries including the information technology ministry to form a centralised portal that will have the full database of what is sold to ensure misuse doesn’t take place.
The CDSCO feels there needs to be a fool-proof plan to make sure consumers do not use one prescription twice or thrice to buy a drug. “It is about safe-guarding our public from consuming habit forming drugs,” a CDSCO official told said. The source added that once the centralised IT platform is set up, medium-risk and high-risk drugs can also be sold. Online pharmaceuticals also need to establish a track record till such a portal starts working.
These suggestions will be vetted by the health ministry after which the ministries of law and IT 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 logger heads. PharmEasy, a Mumbai-based start-up in the online pharmaceutical space, faced the heat recently. Some of its suppliers were sent licence suspension letters.