💊 The Dark Side of E-pharmacies: A Call for Government Regulation

E-pharmacies are under the government’s scanner right now due to some shady practices. Here’s why this needs to be regulated fast. ReadOn!

The world of business feels like Instagram now.

A new trend comes in, and all the players start following it blindly.

One such popular ‘trend’ is e-pharmacies. Yes, we can all thank Covid for its popularity. 

After all, in a world where everything is at our fingertips, from food to your life partner, why should medicines be hidden in brick-and-mortar stores?

But popularity puts you in the spotlight - the world can see every move you make. The good ones, and the bad ones.

This is exactly what has happened with e-pharmacies.

Over 20 e-pharmacies, including big names like Tata 1mg, Netmeds, Flipkart+, have received a show cause notice from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO). Why? ReadOn!

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🤔 The Problem with E-Pharmacies

First, let’s give you some context.

E-pharmacies are an innovative solution to an age-old problem: the lack of availability of medicines in certain areas.

But while innovations move fast, laws take time to catch up in India.

To govern and regulate the pharmaceutical sector, we have one law that was written back in the 1940s.

The founders running these e-pharmacies weren’t even born then!

So, obviously, there is no law to govern the online selling of drugs. This puts them in a regulatory grey area. 

The government did introduce some rules after many fake online pharmacies cropped up in the early days.

These new laws prohibited pharmacies from promoting/advertising drugs. It was mandatory for them to register with the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), and have a licence from at least one state.

But these rules weren’t really strictly implemented.

Result? E-pharmacies are still sketchy.

Many are operating without licence, claiming that they don’t need one because they are simply intermediaries between pharmacies and customers.

Others are operating with a licence, but they’re still not following the law.

You see, these licences allow companies to sell drugs through an offline pharmacy that has a licensed pharmacist. But most of these pharmacies send drugs through dark stores (warehouses).

A bigger problem?

These e-pharmacies allow you to get prescription drugs without an actual prescription. 

When you go to buy a prescription drug from an e-pharmacy, they don’t allow you to buy the drug unless you upload a prescription. But here’s the catch: you don’t need to upload a prescription actually written by a doctor. You can upload literally any piece of paper.

Here’s a piece of paper we uploaded on Netmeds and Tata 1mg to buy not one but two prescription drugs. One of these drugs is an antidepressant with a long list of serious side-effects. We could potentially order an antidepressant without any checks or balances!

Why is This Coming Up Now? 

These problems in the e-pharmacy model have been highlighted by traditional chemists’ and pharmacists’ unions multiple times in the past.

In fact, the notice comes after All India Organization of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD), threatened to launch an agitation if action was not taken against these e-pharmacies.

You see, e-pharmacies are stealing chemists’ businesses. These e-pharmacies offer major discounts to customers, nudging more people to buy from them instead of local chemists.

So, these chemists brought the shady practices of these pharmacies to the forefront, leading to the CDSCO notice. 

Now, it is unclear which e-pharmacies have responded to the CDSCO and if their responses were acceptable.

Guess we’ll find out when the CDSCO takes the next step.

But this whole fiasco has raised some scary concerns.

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👀 Concerns with E-Pharmacies

A major concern with E-pharmacies is the unregulated and unchecked selling of prescription drugs.

This could have serious consequences like:

• Increase in suicides or accidental deaths

• Increase in liver and kidney diseases (many prescription drugs impact these organs)

• Increase in opioid or drug addiction (many people can get addicted to prescription painkillers)

• Increase in anti-microbial resistance

Eh, what’s that?

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😯The New Epidemic Impacting the World

It seems like mosquitoes have adapted to mosquito repellants: no matter how much repellant you spray, they don’t go away!

Now even disease-causing germs are adapting to medicines in the same way. 

The more meds you take, the better they get at adapting. This is called anti-microbial resistance. 

This antimicrobial resistance is killing more people than HIV/AIDS now. 

Deaths from HIV/AIDS in 2021: 864,000.

Deaths from anti-microbial resistance related infections in 2021: 1.27 million. 

And this death toll could reach 10 million/year by 2050! 

E-pharmacies could play a major role in contributing to this epidemic. 

Kerala is currently taking steps to stop anti-microbial resistance by banning the sale of any and all antibiotics without prescriptions. 

But if e-pharmacies exist, people could still buy these drugs. 

So, strict regulations need to come in place for these e-pharmacies. 

Thankfully, the government is already taking some steps towards this. 

We are planning to amend the Drugs and Cosmetic Act to regulate e-pharmacies. 

What's more, tech is advancing at a super fast rate. These e-pharmacies could also implement AI and other tech to determine whether or not a prescription has been faked. 

Change is possible and it is much needed. 

Let’s hope that these e-pharmacies do what they were born to do: increase the availability of medicines for those who really need them.

What are your thoughts on these e-pharmacies? Should they be banned? Can they be regulated? Let us know in the comments! 

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