Giant e-pharmacies crowding out retail chemists in India: CAIT

New Delhi, Feb 15 (KNN) The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Wednesday urged Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya to look into defiance of Drug and Cosmetics Act and rules by online pharmacy businesses which have created an adverse impact on wholesale and retail chemists of India. 

The traders’ body has accused several big foreign and indigenous corporations for openly defying Drug and Cosmetics Act and rules and indulging in anti-consumer practices and risking the safety and health of the consumers. 

E-pharmacy marketplaces like Pharmeasy, Tata 1Mg, Netmeds and Amazon Pharmacy are at the forefront of these blatant violations, said CAIT National President B.C.Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal in a joint statement.

CAIT has decided to organise a national level conference of prominent chemists Associations from across the country next month. 

A delegation of CAIT will soon meet Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal to apprise them about violations of e-pharmacies in the country. 

Despite stringent Act and Rules, e-pharmacy marketplaces are misusing the loopholes in the law and playing with the lives of innocent Indian consumers by selling drugs without prescription and dispensing drugs without a registered pharmacist, said the Bhartia and Khandelwal.  

They both said that the government should permit only those e-pharmacies that own the drugs which are purported to be sold on the e-pharmacy and rest of the e-pharmacies operating in the country should be asked to down their shutters. 

“Also, no person must be allowed to establish a web portal to act as an intermediary between the e-pharmacy entity and consumer,” they noted. 

CAIT has urged the government to ensure that all drugs are disbursed only from the registered retail pharmacy and only by a registered pharmacist after following the due verification process to ensure consumers get exactly what they order. 

Both the trade leaders said that government should impose a minimum penalty of Rs 1,00,000 which may extend to Rs 10,00,000 so that violators like Pharmeasy, Netmeds, Amazon Pharmacy, Tata1Mg are suitably penalised.  (KNN Bureau)