New Delhi, Apr 26 (KNN) In a bid to bring e-pharmacies under the umbrella of Drugs and Cosmetics Act, Union government has notified a draft rules to regulate e-pharmacies.

The draft rules have been framed in consultation with the Drugs Technical Advisory Board called Drugs and Cosmetic Amendment Rules 2017 under which e-pharmacies will need to register their portal with central authorities and would not be allowed to sell “X” Drugs, tranquilizers and narcotic substances.

As per the draft rules, e-pharmacies would be required to maintain data base about the prescriptions, drugs dispensed with and the cost for the future use.

Further the rules imposed the restriction over using the data for any other purpose except for public health purposes that too by central government authority only.

These pharmacies will now have to maintain a record of the name of the patients, their address, and details mentioned in the prescription, the serial number of the drug, its expiry date and the quantity supplied as per the draft rules.

For verification point of view, draft rules mandates that the portal to put up details of their registration,  directors, partners and persons having ownership, the official logo, logistics provider, return policy of drugs, the name of the pharmacist who validates the prescription, contact details of the e-pharmacy and procedure for lodging complaints on the website.

A team of officers constituted by the Central Licensing Authority would be responsible for inspection of the location from where the e-pharmacy operates its business.

The inspection would be conducted once in two years, as per the draft rules.