The Indian Internet Pharmacy Association (IIPA) sees that online pharmacies have a huge scope of development in Asia, particularly in India. There is no dearth of entrepreneurs in this sector which now needs a dedicated regulations to support the operations.
As on date, most of e-pharmacy entrepreneurs are stressing upon regulatory compliances rather than business development. The online sale and purchase of prescribed drugs and medicines in India is still a neglected area as far as regulations are concerned, Siddharth Singhal, founder & CEO, Vibcare Pvt. Ltd and official spokesperson of IIPA told Pharmabiz.
Till now, there are no dedicated e-pharmacy and telemedicine laws in India. Laws for pharmacies in the country are derived from Drug and Cosmetics Act & Rules, Pharmacy Act and Indian Medical Act. Apart from this, there are few high court judgements that have provided further insights and interpretation of the laws. Indian laws related to pharmacies were written prior to arrival of computers, let alone internet. Till now there are no clear cut defined guidelines given by the government for e-pharmacy. The only laws related to internet in India are defined under Information Technology Act, 2000, he added.
The Association has set its own standards when it comes to delivery of medicines which has to be followed by all the member online pharmacies. This includes initiatives like no online pharmacy can operate if it doesn’t have a proper retail license for its offline functioning. Beside this, it is mandatory for the consumers to upload prescription in case the drugs that needs to be delivered are prescription based. No order will be dispatched by the online pharmacies until it is checked and approved manually by the designated pharmacist. It is also ensured that the medicines are delivered in a tamper proof pack to the consumers.
Concerns regarding misuse of technology, safety concerns on electronic prescriptions and opposition from offline chemists which are plaguing the e-pharmacy space are highlighted. These pose huge road blocks for growth even if the entrepreneurs operate in a conducive environment. “There have been many false propagandas framed in order to defame online pharmacies in India. Biggest of them all is that it is illegal to operate online pharmacies in India due to which people are scared of buying medicines online, he added.
“Propagandas induced mostly by offline chemists are irrelevant and has nothing to do with reality. No online pharmacy encourages self-medication and does not pose any risk to consumers. Neither they deliver any spurious medicines. Rather we are insisting on uploading of prescriptions for online sales of prescribed medicines and we deliver the exact medicines that are prescribed by doctors to their patients. This initiative by e-pharmacies minimize the scope of misuse of prescriptions as they have prohibited from selling any abusive or habit forming medical substance on our website,” Singhal said.