Maharashtra Food & Drug Administration conducted a raid on e-commerce website, Snapdeal.com, in Mumbai last month for selling prescription medicines on line. The action was initiated by the state FDA for violation of Rule 65 of Drugs & Cosmetics Act which specifies that only a licensed dealer can sell drugs to a customer on production of a doctor’s prescription. The drug control officials have now directed Snapdeal.com to immediately withdraw offers for sale and exhibition of prescription drugs from its e-commerce sites and delist them. The company is reported to have agreed to comply with the state FDA directions. The FDA had detected another case of online trading of prescription drugs to overseas buyers last year by a group of traders without having drug licenses or prescriptions. It has been found that buyers largely from the US, Europe, Canada, Japan and some African countries, were placing orders for drugs like anti-depressants, anti-hypertensives, sildenafil citrate, etc. at the websites of these traders. The trading firms have been sending the consignments of these drugs by air couriers without obtaining the drug license and other permissions from the concerned authorities. The FDA  reported to have found more than 20 such trading companies indulging in this activity at that time in the country.

Although online trading of medicines to overseas buyers without license and doctor’s prescription is also considered to be an offence, such trading operations within the country needs to be taken much more seriously by the regulatory authorities. Apart from Snapdeal, there are reports that e-commerce in pharmaceutical products has been launched in different parts of the country by some various groups to serve the domestic customers. A couple of months ago, MedPlus, a leading pharmacy chain in south, launched e-commerce services in Hyderabad and the company is contemplating to expand its services to 50 other cities in the country. These services definitely offer the customers to pick up the medicines without visiting the pharmacy and that too at 10 to 15 per cent discount on most of the medicines. A serious problem the patient community and regulatory authorities may face because of this new trade practice is the circulation of doubtful quality of medicines supplied online. It is possible that many substandard drugs could be routed through this new channel unless trading through online is strictly monitored. Unrestricted online selling of medicine can also lead to self medication among the people resulting in irrational use of certain drugs in the long run. DCGI is already aware of this looming threat to the public health and it will be better if his office came out with a set of norms for online selling of medicines without any delay.