Online pharmacies suffer without regulatory prescriptions in India

The absence of a legal framework governing this fast-growing segment of the pharma retailing business is causing confusion in the industry

Online pharmacies have been under the scanner in India for some time in the absence of a comprehensive law for this emerging space. On February 8, then Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) V G Somani, who completed an extension of his term last month, asked online pharmacies to explain why action should not be taken against them for the sale and distribution in contravention of the law. In May and November 2019, the DCGI sent notices for action and compliance to state drug controllers quoting a December 2018 Delhi High Court order that restrained e-pharmacies from selling medicines without