NEW DELHI: Amid ongoing crackdowns on counterfeit drugs in the national capital, the All-India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) has voiced concerns over the unchecked operations of online pharmacy platforms. The association criticised the State Licensing Authority for its continued inaction in regulating and monitoring the functioning of these e-pharmacies.
“The online pharmacy platforms continue to sell medicines in violation of the Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940, posing a serious threat to public health. Our association had formally highlighted the matter to the Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare about the continued inaction by State Licensing Authorities (SLAs), despite repeated complaints being forwarded to them by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO). While her reply in the Rajya Sabha on July 22 mentioned that complaints regarding unauthorised sale of medicines are referred to SLAs, no visible or effective action has been taken by the SLA on the ground,” the association said on Tuesday.
In the absence of final regulation, e-pharmacy platforms continue to sell habit-forming and psychotropic drugs without prescription, schedule H, H1, and X medicines in violation of the law, untraceable, diverted, and unlicensed stock, and medicines without any quality assurance or physical verification, it added.
Notably, the drug control department had earlier flagged the dubious role of online platforms in the sale of counterfeit cancer drugs whose network it busted last month.
Rajiv Singhal, general secretary of the AIOCD, said the e-pharmacies are running without any checks and balances. “Recently, a large swathe of counterfeit medicine was busted in Delhi, where the roles of these e-pharmacies also came under the scanner as distribution networks. They don’t document the sale of Schedule H, H1, and X medicine, which are habit-forming, which is again against the law. So either the government should take action or force them to shut operations,” he said.