Chennai: The Madras high court has stayed the online sale of medicines. Justice R. Mahadevan who granted the interim stay, also directed the Union government to file its counter affidavit by November 9 to the petition filed by the Tamil Nadu chemists and druggists association represented by its general secretary K.K. Selvan.
According to the petitioner, like other products now-a-days medicines are also being sold online. Purchasing medicines from unlicensed online stores can be risky because they may sell fake, expired, contaminated, not of standard quality, unapproved drugs or otherwise unsafe products that were dangerous to patients and may put their health at risk. India does not have any concrete laws defined for online sale of medicines, he added.
He said the medicines were not simple items of commerce, they were an essential component of patient’s health and they must be administered to patients in a timely manner as prescribed by the registered medical practitioner and such drugs were provided under the direct supervision of qualified person (pharmacist) for the benefit of patients. The medicines were issued to consumer as per prescription by a qualified pharmacist at retail medical shop. The medicines were issued only as per specific prescription and dosages as prescribed by registered medical practitioners. The retail chemist or consumer has no choice to substitute any other medicine or strength of prescribed medicine, he added.
He said the online sellers of medicine do not even have license to sell, stock or offer for sale or distribute such medicines including Schedule H/H1 and Schedule X medicines. Therefore, the association sent a representation to the authorities. However, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation replied that they will regulate the online trade of medicines and they have started amendments to the Drugs and Cosmetic Act, wherein they were framing rules to regulate the online sale of medicines. Subsequently, the Union government came out with a draft rules. The members of the petitioner association sent their objections and the same was pending and the draft rules were not notified. In the meantime, the petitioner also filed a petition to block all the link of such websites from India, who were selling the medicines. The same was pending before this court. However, the online sales were being happily carried on by several persons through more than 3,500 websites, he added.
