Online Sale of Medicines
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Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
minister-ca@nic.in
Sir,
Let me first congratulate on the good work being done by the Consumer Forum in Local circles. It is the most active circle.
I notice that different High Courts are putting a stop on Online sale of medicines on the application made by Pharmacist. As you must be aware the Pharmacist are a strong lobby to whom manufacturers pay 40 to 50 % commission on medicines sold by them. Naturally, they would not like to lose that commission and so these petitions to the various courts. I understand the Madras High Court and Delhi High Courts have already restricted Online Sale of Medicines. More High Courts should soon follow on the petitions of these pharmacist. We people, especially old people, whose medicine bills exceed their food bills would have to pay 20 to 25% more on our medicines, if sale of online medicines are banned. We do not have a lobby. We can only appeal to you to speak up and take up our case so that we continue to get medicines at a cheaper rate by stopping the High Courts from issuing these bans. Yes, High Courts and the government may set rules and procedures so that only genuine medicines are supplied Online and no fake medicines are sold.
Thanking you.
Yours Sincerely,
Radheshyam Sharma
Let me first congratulate on the good work being done by the Consumer Forum in Local circles. It is the most active circle.
I notice that different High Courts are putting a stop on Online sale of medicines on the application made by Pharmacist. As you must be aware the Pharmacist are a strong lobby to whom manufacturers pay 40 to 50 % commission on medicines sold by them. Naturally, they would not like to lose that commission and so these petitions to the various courts. I understand the Madras High Court and Delhi High Courts have already restricted Online Sale of Medicines. More High Courts should soon follow on the petitions of these pharmacist. We people, especially old people, whose medicine bills exceed their food bills would have to pay 20 to 25% more on our medicines, if sale of online medicines are banned. We do not have a lobby. We can only appeal to you to speak up and take up our case so that we continue to get medicines at a cheaper rate by stopping the High Courts from issuing these bans. Yes, High Courts and the government may set rules and procedures so that only genuine medicines are supplied Online and no fake medicines are sold.
Thanking you.
Yours Sincerely,
Radheshyam Sharma
Connected ConsumersDec 15
I have made my efforts to locate this order but not able to find it as yet. Please help.
Banning is not the solution because when the court orders such ban, it specifically goes into the issue and then passes a reasoned order. We need to file an appeal against this order.
Going by the news report, the issue appears to be very childish.
When the Delhi High Court decided to act on the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a Delhi-based dermatologist Zaheer Ahmed, it concluded by declaring a nation-wide ban on e-pharmacies and online sale of medicines.
The decision-making bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice VK Rao passed the decision on Wednesday and immediately alerted Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to implement the ban.
The reason behind this, he states is the fact that drugs can be addictive, habit-forming, and have a psychotropic substance that can be easily used for drug abuse and criminal activities. The most endangered demographics by this practice are that of people from uneducated rural backgrounds who wouldn’t understand if there is some misbranding or substandard drug being sold.
In his PIL, Ahmed had complained that lakhs of medicines were being sold through online pharmacies without following proper regulations and guidelines. This, according to him, puts not only both patients and doctors at risk but also the humanity at large.
My question is that if the sale of the same medicines was made through pharmacies recognised by the government instead of online marketing, would they be safe?
Secondly why was the AAP(a political party) alerted by the court? Secondly if AAP is in power only in Delhi, why was it specifically named? Only to take credit of the ban?
Dr Ahmed is a dermatologist? Can he decide on any other disease?
The reason behind this, he states is the fact that drugs can be addictive, habit-forming, and have a psychotropic substance that can be easily used for drug abuse and criminal activities. The most endangered demographics by this practice are that of people from uneducated rural backgrounds who wouldn’t understand if there is some misbranding or substandard drug being sold.
Ahmed had complained that lakhs of medicines were being sold through online pharmacies without following proper regulations and guidelines. This, according to him, puts not only both patients and doctors at risk but also the humanity at large.
If so, the govt should have controlled and regulated the sale, which it has by the following order which is about to be issued or has been issued:
The Union Health Ministry has come out with draft rules on sale of drugs by e-pharmacies with an aim to regulate online sale of medicines across India and provide patients accessibility to genuine drugs from authentic online portals.
The draft rules on "sale of drugs by e-pharmacy" state that no person will distribute or sell, stock, exhibit or offer for sale of drugs through e-pharmacy portal unless registered.
"Any person who intends to conduct business of e-pharmacy shall apply for the grant of registration to the Central Licensing Authority in Form 18AA through the online portal of the Central Government," the draft notification said.
The draft notification says the application of registration of e-pharmacy will have to be accompanied by a sum of Rs 50,000 while asserting that an e-pharmacy registration holder will have to comply with provisions of Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000).
The above reports are an indicator to some manipulations either by the retailers or the pharma industry. Some thing is fishy. We need to find out this. more