Amazon and Flipkart Well being plus are among the many 20 on-line sellers which were issued show-cause notices by the Medicine Controller Basic of India (DCGI) over the web sale of medicine in violation of norms.
The show-cause discover dated February 8 by DCGI V G Somani cited a Delhi Excessive Court docket order dated December 12, 2018, which prohibits on-line gross sales of medicines and not using a licence.
The discover said that the DCGI had forwarded the order to all state and Union Territories in Might and November 2019 and once more on February 3 for obligatory motion and compliance.
“Regardless of the identical, you’re discovered to be engaged in such actions and not using a licence,” the discover to the web drugs sellers mentioned.
“…You might be hereby requested to point out trigger inside 2 days from the date of situation of this discover, why motion shall not be taken in opposition to you on the market, or inventory, or exhibit or supply on the market or distribution of medicine in contravention of the provisions of the Medicine and Cosmetics Act 1940 and guidelines made thereunder,” the discover mentioned.
The discover states that the sale or inventory or exhibit or supply on the market or distribution of any drug requires a licence from the involved state licensing authority and situations of a licence are required to be complied with by the licence holders.
The DCGI has mentioned that in case of no reply, it is going to be presumed that the corporate has nothing to say within the matter and obligatory motion will likely be initiated in opposition to them with none additional discover.
When contacted, Flipkart Well being Plus mentioned that it’s a digital healthcare market platform that permits simple and handy entry to real and reasonably priced medicines and healthcare merchandise, from unbiased sellers, for thousands and thousands of consumers throughout the nation.
“We now have obtained the discover from CDSCO (Central Medicine Customary Management Organisation) and are responding to it appropriately. As an organisation, we stay dedicated to complying with the legal guidelines of the land and in the direction of steady enhancements of our processes/checks and controls on our market platform to construct belief and improve buyer expertise,” Flipkart Well being plus mentioned.
Electronic mail queries in search of feedback over the event despatched to Amazon India and others didn’t elicit any reply.
Merchants physique Confederation of All India Merchants (CAIT) Nationwide President BC Bhartia and Secretary Basic Praveen Khandelwal in a joint assertion demanded the federal government to strictly implement the regulation and the judgment of the Delhi excessive courtroom and make sure that no e-commerce firm is promoting drugs violating the Drug and Beauty Act.
“Authorities should take strict motion in opposition to the e-commerce, e-pharma intermediaries, market platforms together with Amazon and Flipkart who’re promoting the medication with out acquiring the requisite license-added the commerce leaders,” the assertion mentioned.
CAIT added that a number of on-line drugs sellers are foreign-controlled and due to this fact, are ineligible to hunt these retail licences as this is able to be a violation of the extant Overseas Direct Funding coverage within the multi-brand retail sector or inventory-based e-commerce.