Is it legal to buy non-prescription drugs from an online pharmacy in India?

 


Introduction

The traditional way of purchasing medicine in India is to go to the local community shop and get access to the drugs. Consumers prefer to discuss with the pharmacist and learn the proper way of consuming the drugs, with satisfaction. However, with the change in time, people got introduced to digital technologies and started sustaining on it. It is over a decade since many online pharmacies have been launched by pharmaceutical companies in India. Hence, grabbing more attention from the consumers.

E-commerce turned as a boon for the Indian economy. Customers are more reliable in online applications rather than going to the shops and purchasing a product. Online pharmacies have also proved themselves impeccable on this platform. They give their full effort to provide service and fulfill customers' demands. Customers can easily get access to the medicine which they find difficult to get from the local retail shop.

But as it is said “blessing for one becomes a curse for another”, with the introduction of online pharmacy, retail pharmacies had to go through many losses. They lost their customers, had to reduce the price of their products, and also had to plan for many new strategies that cost heavier on their pockets.
Are there any laws for online pharmacy in India?

There are no particular laws that have been introduced for the online pharmacies in India.

The Information Technology Act 2000 has ruled some laws for online pharmacies, but they are practically silent. and its repercussion is many illicit online pharmacies are active in the country, making a huge amount of money and putting customers' life at stake.

The following are the reasons for the disagreement between the retail and the online pharmacies are: -

  • Stiff competition: - There is stiff competition between the two platforms. Millennial are more reliable in retail pharmacies as they can buy the medicine after inspecting and confirming about the history and the manufacturing details of the drug. On the other side, Y and I generations are depending on online pharmacy so that their sedentary lifestyle will not get disturbed, also they could embrace the multiple offers or relaxation on prices which becomes a bliss in their eyes.

  • Adherence to regulation: -Retail pharmacies concentrate more on the rules and regulations and do not believe in providing drugs without any authorized prescription. They take special care of the manufacturing and expiry date of the drugs. On a contrary, some of the illicit online pharmacies do not show any concern regarding these factors and focus more on profit.

  • Adverse effect: - Due to relaxation from providing authorized prescription and dealing on a global platform, customers mostly order drugs which leads to fatality or severe adverse reactions. For instance: high demand for abortion pills. This order not only takes place in the respective country, but customers from other countries get easy access to harmful drugs.

Conflict between retail pharmacies and the online pharmacies: -

Retail pharmacies noticed that most of the online pharmacies availed drugs to the customers without confirming any prescribed prescription. It leads to the black marketing in the country. Also, the illicit supply of drugs to the young generation has brought forward many repercussions which displayed the dark side of the society. For instance: - students ordered sleeping pills online to commit suicide. Attempt to murder in a fit of rage to take revenge among the youngsters.


So, for avoiding all this incident in the year 2018, Indian retail pharmacies decided to seat on a strike against online pharmacies. They filed complaints against them for selling non-prescribed drugs which lead to adverse effects and fatality. The outcome of the action was that in the same year the union health minister came up with a new E-pharmacy draft rule according to which no distribution, sale, stock, and exhibition of drugs will take place without legal registration. Authorized prescription is imperative for selling any kind of drugs to the customer. Also, the preservation of customer confidentiality should be a priority.

However, many online pharmacies failed in following the protocols, and as a result, in the year 2019 Chennai high court passed a rule according to which all the online pharmacies are banned in Tamil Nadu.
Improvement in online pharmacies: -

After facing lots of lashes back and criticism online pharmacies are slowly changing its protocols to prove its positive side in the digital world. It is coming up with new strategies and has focused on many factors on a priority basis. Now in registered online pharmacy customers cannot get access to any drugs without providing the properly authorized prescription. For instance:- 3MEDs, the online pharmacy in Delhi. They take special care of the billing section by providing proper invoices on the selling of every drug so that they could do the documentation of the transaction and could save the integrity of the platform. However, it is not possible to fight with the black market all the time and hence as a consequence, there is still the existence of many illicit online pharmacies who play with the life of Customers.

In a conclusion, it could be said that in India it is not legal to buy drugs without proper prescription from any online pharmacy. But it is not easy to fight with black marketeers, so the supply of duplicate or contaminated drugs is still prevalent in India. It depends on the consumers which platform they will choose for? They should do the proper investigation before placing an order on online pharmacies.

Key words: - Online pharmacy in India, The Information Technology Act 2000, Union Health Minister 2018, E-pharmacy draft rule.

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