New Act for e-pharmacy

The Government is working towards drafting a new Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 2016 to meet the current regulatory requirements related to safety, efficacy and quality of drugs, said Dr. S. Eswara Reddy, Joint Drugs Controller, Central Drugs Standard Control Organization.

For the government, pharmaceuticals was a priority sector, therefore it was critical to ensure that its regulations are strengthened. He added that there should be a standard format of prescriptions.

With the advent of e-pharmacy, the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 is outdated.

E-pharmacy would allow easy availability of drugs at all hours. However, there were concerns with respect to legitimacy of e-pharmacies, patients’ safety and privacy, misuse of e-pharmacy and adverse effect on retailers business, according to K. B. Aggarwal, Additional Secretary (Food and Drugs), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.

These were announced on July 25, 2016, at the launch of ‘E-pharmacy in India – Last Mile Access of Medicines’, which was organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

Meanwhile, FICCI Secretary General A Didar Singh has called for an urgent need to nurture the e-pharmacy sector with the right set of policy frameworks and guidelines in order to provide the benefits that the sector fosters for the consumers.

As one of the key agenda of the Government has been to provide easy, quality and affordable access of health services to the consumers, the evolving concept of e-pharmacy will definitely give an impetus to the health sector of the country, he said. fii-news.com