Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: Traders’ physique Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has alleged misuse of loopholes within the regulation by e-pharmacies to promote medicine “without prescription and dispensing drugs without a registered pharmacist.” CAIT’s National President B C Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal, in a joint assertion, mentioned the federal government ought to allow solely these e-pharmacies that personal medicine and in addition no particular person must be allowed to determine an internet portal to behave as an middleman between the e-pharmacy and shopper.
Khandelwal mentioned e-pharmacies usually disguise behind middleman safety provisions like Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 in case the client receives adulterated or spurious medicine. “This is similar to how e-commerce marketplaces dodge liability by claiming intermediary protection in e-commerce. The consequences in the case of e-pharmacy are not only more grave but also irreversible in most cases,” he added urging the federal government to ban such e-pharmacy marketplaces.
To keep away from escape by e-pharmacies as intermediaries, CAIT additionally steered amendments within the draft Drugs and Cosmetics Amendment Rules, 2018. The affiliation sought to revise the definition of ‘sale by way of e-pharmacy’ to make sure e-pharmacies distributing or promoting, stocking and exhibiting or providing on the market are permitted whereas others are prohibited. Khandelwal and Bhartia additionally steered a minimal penalty of Rs 1 lakh, which can lengthen to Rs 10 lakh, for alleged violation of norms by such e-pharmacies.
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“CAIT has expressed its disappointment on failure of the Health Ministry for not taking any action on e-pharmacies who are flouting rules and regulations of Drug & Cosmetic Act despite writing to ministry several times in the past,” mentioned an announcement by the affiliation. The alleged non-compliance of guidelines by e-pharmacies has additionally made chemist commerce uncompetitive, it added.
The affiliation had final 12 months additionally written to the federal government on the problem. “It is important to note that the sale of prescription drugs and medicines through online medium is illegal. The legal regime, under the Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940, does not permit home delivery of prescription medicines for which a prescription “in original” is required,” CAIT had mentioned in a letter to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal in March 2021. Currently, a lot of corporations resembling PharmEasy, Tata 1mg, Netmeds, and so forth., function within the e-pharmacy phase.
Source: www.financialexpress.com”