<p><strong>CH Unnikrishnan</strong><br><br>Finally, the public concern on the mushrooming online pharmacy trade has taken a legal course. As<em> Indian Express</em> reported, a public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed at the Bombay High Court by a college lecturer from Mumbai on Wednesday (28 October), seeking a stay on such trade.<br> <br>The PIL seeking a stay on illegal online delivery of Schedule “H” drugs (medicines to be sold under medical prescription) by online pharmacies without prescription or cash memos, has alleged that these websites are ignoring provisions of law supposed to be followed to run a pharmacy business.<br><br>BW Businessworld had <a href="http://www.businessworld.in/healthcare-pharma/bitter-pill-e-pharmacies-dont-open-yet-another-big-avenue-counterfeiters-now#sthash.ogBLCYjh.dpbs">last week published a column,</a>, cautioning about the dangers of the now proliferating online trade in the Indian pharmacy space after a government’s alleged move to formalise them. Government of India had recently set up a committee to look at the pros and cons of online pharmacies.<br> </p><table align="right" border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" style="width: 200px;"><tbody><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://bw-image.s3.amazonaws.com/unninWEB.jpg" style="width: 200px; height: 200px; margin: 1px;"></td></tr><tr><td><strong>C H Unnikrishnan</strong></td></tr></tbody></table><p>While selling Schedule H and X (to be sold and used under medical supervision) medicines by unlicensed pharmacies not only violates the existing Drugs and Cosmetics Act of the country leading to abuse of drugs, it will also likely increase the production and supply of spurious and counterfeit products.<br> <br>As the Thursday (October 29) media report says, Mayuri Patil of the SK Sommaiya College of Commerce, in her petition filed through advocate Allari Jathar, has given a list of schedule H medicines that come with a warning: “To be sold by retail on the prescription of a registered medical practitioner only.” The PIL has mentioned the names of several websites, mainly operating from outside India and pharmacies where such drugs are available. It also reasons the provisions made under various laws are not observed by these websites.<br><br>According to Rule 61 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945, the medicine sales are permitted only through a licensed medical store and the place the drugs are stored should also possess a valid license as it enables inspection by drug regulators for ensuring authenticity and quality of medicines sold in the country.<br><br>According the report, the PIL says, “It is crystal clear that drugs, of any category, cannot be sold without license under the rules,” citing the rules dealing with cash memo, prescription and other particulars. The petitioner has also sought the government or the court to set up a committee to list such all such portals, violating these rules.<br><br>Although the online medicine trade has been there for sometime operated by websites, whose servers are based outside the country and the Indian regulators had no provision to act against them, the issue is gathering more attention currently as the booming e-commerce trade in India has jumped into this space.<br><br>The offline pharmacy trade had early this month raised concerns about the entry of online trade in the country and a possibility of the government allowing them to operate with a regulatory frame work. Even though their concerns were, as one can primarily understand, rooted mainly about the threat of them losing business to the emerging ‘consumer friendly’ online trade, the major risk of allowing the online pharmacies without adequate monitoring system is the likely proliferation of spurious and counterfeit drugs, as monitoring the stock movement could be difficult in this model.<br><br>Since the issue has been for the first time taken to the court through the PIL, let’s hope the judiciary take an appropriate call.<br> <br> </p>
