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The Madras High Court on Wednesday passed an interim injunction restraining online sale of medicines till November 9. The order was passed on a plea moved by the Chennai-based Tamil Nadu Chemists & Druggists Association.
The Court also directed the Centre to file a counter affidavit and posted the matter for November, second week.
Chennai-based Tamil Nadu Chemists & Druggists Association, which claims to be a representative body of about 30,000 pharmaceutical retailers and wholesalers, filed a plea seeking a direction fron the court to authorities concerned to block the links of websites that sell medicines online.
In the plea it was stated that while consumers find online shopping convenient, purchasing medicines from unlicensed online stores can be risky as the medicines could be fakes or unapproved drugs. They may have also expired or become contaminated, or otherwise deemed dangerous, putting the consumer's health at risk.
The Association claims medicines are being sold online by more than 3,500 sites all over the country.
The Association, in its affidavit said, that laws for pharmacies in India are derived from Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, Drugs and Cosmetics Rule, 1945 and Pharmacy Act, 1948. These laws were written prior to arrival of computers and India does not have any concrete laws defined for online sale of medicines. A copy of the affidavit is available with Business Standard.
Though various amendments have been made to the Act, no provision has been made to utilise information technology for sale of medicines online, it said.
From a market size of $12.6 billion in 2009, the Indian pharmaceutical market will grow to $55 billion by 2020, with the potential to reach $70 billion in an aggressive growth scenario. The domestic e-pharmacy market has captured less than 1 per cent.
