Karnataka drugs control department has issued show cause notices and cancelled the trade licences of two online pharmacy vendors namely VLN Nirman Pharma and Medybiz.

These Bengaluru based companies sought licenses from the Karnataka drugs control department as wholesale druggists. They then started the services for online pharmacy along with their wholesale distribution business.

The online firms have violated the Drugs and Cosmetics Act & Rules 65 (9)(a), 65 (10) (a) and 65 (11) (c) which makes it clear that the Schedule H drugs cannot be sold with scanned copies of prescriptions. The Act mandates dispensing drugs with original copy of the prescription, Raghruama Bhandary, drugs controller, government of Karnataka told Pharmabiz.

The License number of Medybiz KA/BNG/20/23/29 and 20 B KN BNG3/2013 /1526 stands cancelled. In the case of VLN Nirman Pharma, the license number DCD/ADC/2B Circle 3 26/994/14-15 is also suspended.

The department was able to nab the violators based on complaints from the public. Medybiz Pharma had entered into an agreement with Health Kart Plus to supply medicines to the customers. As per the agreement, Health Kart Plus transferred the medicine order details along with the scanned copies of prescription to Medybiz. The latter delivered the drugs to consumers and collected the payment from the patient’s residences.

Medybiz also had a pharmacist at their premises who could be contacted by phone. For dispensing purposes the pharmacists pack the medicines in tamper proof packs.

For the HealthKart orders, Medybiz received the prescriptions which were printed out, stamped and kept as records. Based on the prescriptions’, Medybiz prepared the invoice and delivered the drugs on the same day. If the customer refuses to accept the parcel of drugs, then the invoices are cancelled and medicines are transferred to the inventory.

Further, Medybiz was not just engaged in local drug dispatches but to locations across India. The drugs which were being sold online by the Medybiz included cardiac, nephrology formulations and diabetic drugs like Janumet. The company was not mentioning the names of the prescribing doctors and dispatching them to the patients.

In the case of VLN Nirman, drugs sold included antipyretic to epilepsy and diabetes, hypertension and cardiac care, cholesterol reduction among others.

The licences were issued to pharmacy outlets and there was no inkling that these companies were engaged in online trading of medicines, he said.

While the contention of the online traders was that most of the patients were aged and suffering from chronic conditions. Their kith and kin were strapped for time to purchase drugs from pharmacy stores and opted for the online route. These companies considered it as a philanthropic service to deliver the drugs to the patients door steps although it was a serious violation of the D&C Act & Rules. Therefore cancellation of licenses and issue of show cause notice was the only way to stall such infringements, said the Karnataka drugs controller.