Hyderabad: With 50 online pharmacies now operational in India, a review by the Drugs Controller General of India contends that e-pharmacies will be the game-changers as they will make medicines more affordable to consumers. Tushar Kumar, founder of online pharmacy Med-life, said, “Online pharmacies that dispense on their own have a larger potential to make medicines affordable by increasing competition, reducing margins and help to deliver drugs in remote areas.”
Online pharmacies claim to be more convenient, economical, organised and transparent, and they maintain records of transactions. A database of consumers is created and this is said to be of help in planning public health policies as it make evident evident which type of drugs were being sold most commonly. A senior drug control officer said the major concern is antibiotics resistance. In the offline sector, separate records have to be maintained and data assessed manually. With online pharmacies, officials will be able to clearly decode the use, misuse and abuse of antibiotics and which will help in framing health policies.”
