Regulate sales of medicines via all channels: Consumer body

Government should take steps to ensure safe and secure purchase of medicines through all channels, online as well as offline, in the wake of rising sales of drugs without prescription, according to Consumer Online Foundation.
"A new law should be brought to replace the archaic Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 and it should focus on the patients' safety and accessibility to quality healthcare for all, specially poor and senior citizens," Consumer Online Foundation Founder Bejon Kumar Misra told PTI.
Misra, who has also written a letter to Union Health Minster on the issue, said currently there is no "strong voice of patients in policy making".

Citing a survey commissioned by the foundation, Misra said Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 is "one of the the most flouted laws in India and medicines are dispensed irrationally without prescriptions from registered medical practitioners."
There has been a rise in medicines being sold without prescriptions and proper records through offline channels, he added.
On the growth of the online pharmacies, he said the government has already set up a sub-committee to establish guidelines for online sales of medicines.
"Online pharmacies provide better alternative to offline pharmacies as they are not only more compliant to the law, but also provide host of other benefits," Misra added.

He said the government must take steps to "regulate the safe and secure purchase of medicines" through all channels.