FDA launches drive to keep a check on e-pharmacy operations

After the CDSCO issued show cause notices questioning the legality of e-pharmacies, the Maharashtra FDA has launched an intensified drive to look at the operations of online portals selling medicines. The drive would focus on the processes followed for selling prescription drugs

Mumbai: After the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) issued show cause notices questioning the legality of e-pharmacies, the Maharashtra Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has launched an intensified drive to look at the operations of online portals selling medicines. The drive would focus on the processes followed for selling prescription drugs.

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State FDA commissioner Abhimanyu Kale had directed all regional offices in the state to launch the drive last week. The officials have identified 17 web portals, including portals run by chain stores that also sell medicines. During the drive, the FDA will also check on the storage and distribution channels used by these websites.

“The drive will ensure that drugs which fall under schedules H, H1 and X under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act are sold by following the due processes. Broadly, the medicines whose sales we are worried about include antibiotics, habit-forming drugs like cough syrups, drugs used for medical termination of pregnancy and performance enhancing drugs among others,” Bhushan Patil, joint commissioner of state FDA, said.

The drugs categorised as H, H1 or X are usually habit-forming and controlled narcotic drugs that are not considered safe if taken without a prescription and supervision of a registered medical practitioner.

In fact, the Act specifies very rigid rules for dispensation of these drugs. Each prescription has to be filled up only once by a qualified pharmacist. Pharmacists are also expected to go through thorough record-keeping processes in order to sell them.

Patil said appropriate legal action will be initiated against those found violating the legal provisions. “Other than the procedural checks, our on-ground teams will also visit godowns of the e-pharmacies to check storage facilities and bookkeeping,” he added.

In the past four years, around 25 FIRs have been registered by the police based on complaints lodged by the FDA against e-pharmacies found flouting the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.

For several years, All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists as well as professional bodies of pharmacists have been pointing out the ways in which online pharmacies are and can be misused, especially in the absence of a governing body. They were set to launch a nation-wide stir from February 15, which has been called off after the CDSCO and FDA assurance of taking appropriate action against the e-pharmacies found breaching the rules.