Mixed responses have come up in a deliberation held on the scope of online trade of medicines (e-pharmacy) in the Indian scenario by the pharma captains and representatives of civic associations in Chennai  last week.

The deliberation was in the form of a debate between two panels of supporters of online pharmacy and off-line pharmacy, and the subject was, ‘Online Pharmacy – Needed or Not-needed’.

The panel who supported online sale of drugs represented pharmacy academia, clinical research association and media. Those opposed were from wholesale trade, pharmacy council and consumer awareness group. There was no representation from the retail sector, regulatory side and manufacturing industry.

Though divergent views have come up in the arguments, speakers from both the sides were focusing on the patients’ safety and guarantee for quality medicines. The panel which supported e-pharmacy said that the web-based platform for medicine sale would definitely benefit the consumers for availing quality drugs and it was advantageous for them. One panelist pointed out that drugs through e-pharmacy would be delivered only on online production of prescription by doctors.

The pharma trade leader and managing director of Essen Associates, R. Sreenivasan, has argued in favour of conventional system of medicine trade under the supervision of a pharmacist. He said the existing mode of medicine business should be continued as the system supports drug dispensing by a pharmacist. According to him, e-pharmacy was started not in public interest. There is no source to control e-pharmacy, he said.

Countering his point, T S Jayashankar, managing director of the clinical research organisation, Quest Life Sciences Ltd, argued that online sale of drugs is already in practice in all the developed countries, and it helps the masses to access any kind of drugs on reasonable prices everywhere. He said a vast country like India cannot remain unnoticed of the developments happening in foreign countries and it has to go on par with the developed nations. According to him, India has all the facilities to create a very good platform for online trade of medicines.

Another supporter of e-pharmacy in the debate was Dr V Ravichandran, director of NIPER, Kolkata, who said online pharmacy is an off-shoot of modern technology that must be utilized for the masses to satisfy their increasing demands.

T Ilango, Registrar of Tamil Nadu Pharmacy Council, supporting off-line trade said e-pharmacy will not succeed in India and it is utter failure wherever it is in practice. He said the government should immediately stop e-pharmacy for medicine sale and allow the conventional system of medicine trade under the supervision of a qualified pharmacist.

The deputy editor of The Hindu publications, R K Radhakrishnan, highlighting the advantages of e-pharmacy, argued that there was no point in opposing on-line business. He pointed out that to each and every concept there are two sides of opinions. He questioned the rationale behind the demand of stoppage of online sale of drugs when there are web based platforms for several other things. Online pharmacy is the need of the hour, he stated.

Raising concerns over the sale of prescription medicines illegally online and highlighting the risk of misuse of drugs, M R Krishnan, deputy director of a consumer education research group, said secure purchase of drugs is made only when a consumer buys it directly from the hands of a pharmacist from a medical store. He said online pharmacy has no mechanism to check the medicines.

The debate, which was conducted by the Tamil Nadu Pharmaceutical Welfare Trust in association with Tamil Nadu IPA, has ended in a heated battle of words between the supporting and opposing participants. The chairman of the Tamil Nadu IPA, J Jayaseelan moderated the function, while Prof K Chinnaswami, president of TN Pharmacy Council, presided over.

Since the debate has evoked mixed responses, the president of the forum reserved his judgment in the discussion.