Chemists bandh total against e-pharmacies in Godavari district

Rajahmundry: Pharmacists are uppping their ante against the Centre’s move to introduce e-pharmacy to facilitate online sale of drugs on the lines of existing e-commerce that facilitates online purchase of any product from garments to electronics and furniture in the country. As part of the nation-wide pharmacies bandh, medical stores observed bandh across the Godavari districts on Wednesday.

Pharmacists fear that such facility will impose no control on availability of especially habit forming drugs and may cause severe health hazards to those consuming them with no supervision by a qualified physician.

They say that certain varieties of anti-biotic drugs and Scheduled H drugs are not supposed to be used by the patients on their own since they will have adverse impact on the health of the patients if they failed to use them properly.

Sources maintain that the governments of Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Karnataka and Bihar have written to the Centre opposing its move on e-pharmacy while Telangana government is also thinking on the same lines not to allow e-pharmacy.

The pharmacists have submitted a representation to the Andhra Pradesh government expr-essing their protest on the proposal and the government is yet to take a final decision on the issue.

At present, the drug control administration is the regulating agency to keep tab on pharmaceutical industries on quality of drugs.

The DCA insists on sale of certain type of dru-gs mainly Scheduled H drugs to be sold across the counter only on prescription by a qualified doctor. It also imposes restrictions of sale of habit forming drugs as they may be misused. It books cases periodically against the pharmaceutical industries for making drugs which are not of standard quality and also on pharmacies which sell drugs beyond maximum retail price. Despite such close vigil, the pharma firms come up with drugs which are not of standard quality.

East Godavari Drug Trade Association president K. Chalapati Rao said, “A drug which provides relief from pain and saves the life of a person is not a commodity to be sold openly. There should be enough safeguards to make, sell and use drugs. We fear the e-pharmacy may fail to ensure such safeguards and there will be no control on availability and misuse of drugs. We are totally against such kind of trade in drugs.”