The Retail and Dispensing Chemists Association (RDCA) will be holding a meet in Mumbai today to discuss issues related to online pharmacy among other pertinent issues flagged by the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on patients being forced to buy medicines from hospital in-house chemist. RDCA is affiliated to the Maharashtra State Chemists and Druggists Association.

The meet which would be attended by all the zonal leaders and committee members of Mumbai would also discuss government notification for reduction in prices of NLEM products.

Even as recommendations from all stakeholders are currently being reviewed by the Sub-Committee constituted by the 48th Drug Consultative Committee under the chairmanship of Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr Harshadeep Kamble to formulate guidelines on online pharmacy, the state has maintained online pharmacies can only sell OTC drugs and not prescription drugs until the guidelines are framed.
 
The Drug Controller General of India had also earlier directed all the state/UT drugs controllers to keep a strict watch on online sale of drugs and take action if there is violation of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Rules there under.

Maharashtra FDA had in the past lodged a complaint against Pharmeasy, one of India’s leading online pharmacy, however, the police investigation has concluded that there is no violation of the FDA rules and regulations, vindicating Pharmeasy’s stand about legality of their operations.

Similarly, in Karnataka, the licenses of vendor partners of online pharmacies like Zigy and Medidart were cancelled, and thereafter revoked post investigations.

For Zigy, the license for a vendor partner in Bengaluru was cancelled. Post challenging of the cancellation, and after several hearings with the appellate court, cancellation was revoked. However the process led to a few months of income loss for a small vendor partner and has caused concern amongst other small entrepreneurs who wish to partner with digital platforms to grow their business.

Taking into account the extra cost which patients bear when hospitals coerce patients to buy from their in-house pharmacies, the state FDA had in March this year asked all the hospitals across the state to display it clearly outside their pharmacies that there is no compulsion to buy medicines from the in-house pharmacy and patients are free to get medicines from drug retail stores in their vicinity.
 
This pressure by hospitals had made patients gullible to avail the medicines on the MRP when the same medicine is offered to the patients at the retail drug store at a discounted price of 30 per cent to 40 per cent based on the choice of brand or medicines required at the point of care. The state drug regulator has also asked the licensing staff to ensure that patients are not held to ransom by the hospitals.

The circular sent to the city's private hospitals states that the decision to choose the pharmacy should be left to the patients and their relatives and the hospital should not coerce them in anyway.