Health and Tech: Relevance of e-pharmacies and its challenges

A few days ago, DCGI under MOHFW issued notices to a few e-pharmacies making it clear that it was mulling to entirely shut them down

Hyderabad: In the last few years, especially after the Covid pandemic, people not only in Telangana but across the country have started accepting the relevance and practicality of e-pharmacies (online drug stores), even as guidelines to streamline and regulate the sector is yet to be put in place by the regulatory authorities.

The e-pharmacies started their services in Telangana and other parts of the country somewhere around 2014 and 2015. Since then, the brick-and-mortar medical shops, which have been the undisputed market leaders on drug retailing, are opposing the concept of online sale of drugs.

---

Every now and then, the powerful national bodies representing the druggists and chemists associations across India, lodge complaints against e-pharmacies, prompting regulators to issue show-cause notices to digital pharmacies.

A few days ago, acting on a similar complaint, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) under union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), New Delhi, issued notices to a few e-pharmacies making it clear that it was mulling to entirely shut-down the concept of digital pharmacies.

At a time when digital pharmacies have become acceptable thanks largely to increased internet penetration and widespread mobile availability, does a blanket ban on digital drug stores look practical?

What is the potential of e-pharmacies?

A report on e-pharmacies on its future in India by KPMG in December 2021 said, “the e-Pharmacy market in India is expected to increase at a higher CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of around 40 percent to 45 percent when compared to Global e-Pharmacy markets that are expected to increase at a CAGR of around 15 percent to 20 percent. The Indian e-Pharmacy market was operating with nearly 50 e-Pharmacies and accounted for 14 percent share of the total revenue of e-Pharmacies in the Asia Pacific Region in 2020,’ the KPMG report added.

What are the major challenges for e-pharmacies?

While there is a lot of positivity around e-pharmacies, the fact also remains that a regulatory framework aimed at streamlining the sector is yet to be implemented. The laws governing sale of medicines in India that fall under Drugs and Cosmetics Act are attuned towards regulating stand-alone medical shops. Since there are no guidelines, these laws, which are meant for brick-and-mortar pharmacy business, are also implemented for digital pharmacies.

The Drugs and Cosmetics Act makes it mandatory that only a licensed retailer will be allowed to sell medicines in a physical medical shop. The Act also makes it compulsory for the presence of a qualified pharmacist in the drug store while selling the medicines. Apart from lack of strong regulatory framework, another major challenge for e-pharmacies is data security and threat of cyber attacks, as they have to deal with highly personal data of customers. A security breach would expose the valuable data of lakhs of customers to unscrupulous elements.