Heralding many factors as reasons for not supporting the government move for online pharmacy, the Tamil Nadu Chemists & Druggists Association (TNCDA) has written to the Union health ministry that if the online pharma trade is licensed in India, it will pave the way for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the sector, and the corporate companies will take over the entire medicine business.
 
With a strong push to their move to restrain the government from implementing the scheme, the TNCDA office-bearers have directly met 15 members of Parliament from the State and wanted them to discuss the matter with the government. In support of the traders’ demand, the members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu have assured them to take their views with the government, sources from TNCDA said.
 
Briefing Pharmabiz about the challenges faced by the pharma traders in the country, especially in Tamil Nadu, Kumbhakonam Ramachandran, president of TNCDA, said apart from the state committee office, all the district committee offices of the organisation have sent independent memorandums to the health minister and to the prime minister urging them to withdraw from this decision. He said there are so many factors as reasons for their opposition to the move and said there is no list of registered doctors and their addresses to prove the originality of the prescription.
 
If e-pharmacy is licensed, misuse of prescriptions cannot be controlled and there will arise one situation where anybody can buy any medicine at any number of time from any online player. Furthermore, the traders lack the list of manufacturers and the drugs they produce to validate the prescription. There will be no control over the misuse of antibiotics which may lead patients to superbug deaths.
 
The e-pharmacy will detach the pharmacists from direct dispensing and the situation will violate all norms of drug acts and pharmacy act, and the latest pharmacy practice regulations 2015. This will cause the patients lose the support of qualified pharmacists in consuming medicines. Further, the concept of full-time pharmacist will become a question mark.
 
“In our country, as far as a patient is concerned, for getting an advice or treatment from a qualified doctor is hard. Patients have to travel and wait a long time in the hospitals or the doctors’ clinics. But in the case of buying medicines, they can access a lot of pharmacies. Patients can avail all kinds of medicines from the pharmacies of their periphery without searching any portal. For every patient, there may be need for change of medicines as per the advice of doctors. This can be done only through offline-pharmacies,” said Ramachandran.

According to TNCDA, if the e-pharmacy is permitted in India, it will affect the business of eight lakh retail and wholesale traders. Once these traders stop their business the patients in the country will not get any emergency life saving medicine. Ultimately poor public will be affected. Besides, it will affect the lives of a minimum of 35 lakh families whose bread & butter is catered by pharma trade.