The Indian drug regulatory authority needs to make use of e-prescription (e-Rx) formats compulsory to bring in the much-needed transparency for online pharmacy operations. This should be enforced on a time bound basis as it will enable convenience and affordability without risking patient safety, said Dr B R Jagashetty, Former National Adviser (Drugs Control) to CDSCO and Former Karnataka Drugs Controller.
Enforcement of D&C Act will be much easier with e-Rx as compared to physical or scanned Rx. The number of players that will be able to implement e-Rx model will be very few compared to huge physical pharmacy outlets to open online pharmacy, he added.
Online pharmacies accepting scanned Rx which courier the medicines across multiple states may lead to inter-state regulatory issues. This is because the patient is in one state and dispensing pharmacy from another state. Since enforcement is with states, this will become a nightmare. Hence only ‘within state’ dispensing can be allowed which is possible in the e-Rx model, said Dr. Jagashetty in a presentation at the recently held seminar on “Drugs and Cosmetics - A Legal Prospective” organised by the Karnataka Institute for Law and Parliamentary Reform in collaboration with Vivekananda College of Law and Vivekananda College of Pharmacy, Bengaluru.
The regulation of e-prescription format can encourage only law-abiding players into the space. Online pharmacies operating on scanned Rx can be easily set up compared to the e-Rx companies as this business model is capital intensive requiring technology, infrastructure and human resources. This segment will attract only few players willing to make substantial investment to modernize drug dispensing that would also achieve a higher valuation for the future. The market will also be enable only efficient technology driven formats to succeed. It would also woo global pharmacy majors to collaborate or commence independent in the Indian market , he stated.
e-Rx is the only model which can create a true win-win situation because it provides ease of medicine purchase in a transparent manner and encourage creation of electronic health records making medical care affordable and accessible. The drug regulatory authority will have an end-to-end visibility to monitor the operations. Further, the government health directorates will be able to assess the data of disease trends, Rx records, recalls and alerts.
On a larger note, e-Rx will ensure that India’s 8 lakh chemists under the All India Organisation for Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) umbrella will be able to compete in a legal manner. It will prevent doctors to misspell drug names and pharmacists to misread the prescription making unwanted access to substitute medicines. Ultimately, e-Rx enables the Union government to realize its Digital India vision, noted Dr. Jagashetty.