With protests and strikes still continue amongst the traders of modern medicines, clinicians and experts in ayush sector demand that online pharmacy should be given legal permission in the ayush sector.

Sales should be carried out only on prescription by registered medical practitioners and it should be purely on digital format.

If e-pharmacy is legally permitted for sale of ayush drugs through online, ayush system will become more popular and people can avail medicines on internet anywhere in India. Since there is shortage of ayush physicians in small towns and villages in several parts of the country except south India, people in the north and north-eastern states can access the system through telemedicine facility, they observe.

Currently, in the case of ayush drugs, licence is granted only for manufacturing and it is not required for sale of the products. When e-pharmacy is permitted legally for ayurveda or siddha or unani products, sales on internet should also be regulated and licence must be made mandatory. The products sold through online should be authorized as they are from GMP certified companies.

If certified medicines from authorized companies are obtainable for people in remote areas or in interior villages where ayush medicines are non-available now, e-pharmacy will become helpful for popularizing the traditional drugs of the country. Legal provisions should be there to control sale or penetration of fake medicines through online in the wake of e-pharmacy. There will not be any problem if certified products from authorized companies are marketed on digital prescription by registered medical practitioners. The marketers should have licence for online sale from authorities”, observed Dr. T. Thirunarayanan, a technical expert and adviser in siddha system in Chennai.

He pointed out that, the ayurveda, siddha, unani drugs technical advisory board (ASUDTAB) had earlier recommended for mandatory licensing for sale of ayush medicines, especially for drugs coming under Schedule E category. The government is yet to take a decision on that.

Unlike modern system, there are not many ayush retail drug stores in our country. So, e-pharmacy can be welcomed as it will help people avail traditional medicines from companies located in distant places. The sellers should have products from approved companies and quality of such products should be ascertained. Further, there should be a feedback mechanism to register adverse reactions of e-marketed drugs just as pharmacovigilance, said a senior ayurveda physician and manufacturer from Madurai.