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Karnataka DC acts against 2 online traders for violating D&C Rules, cancels licenses
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Nandita Vijay, Bengaluru
April 30 , 2015
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Karnataka drugs control department has issued show cause notices and
cancelled the trade licences of two online pharmacy vendors namely VLN
Nirman Pharma and Medybiz.
These Bengaluru based companies sought
licenses from the Karnataka drugs control department as wholesale
druggists. They then started the services for online pharmacy along with
their wholesale distribution business.
The online firms have
violated the Drugs and Cosmetics Act & Rules 65 (9)(a), 65 (10) (a)
and 65 (11) (c) which makes it clear that the Schedule H drugs cannot be
sold with scanned copies of prescriptions. The Act mandates dispensing
drugs with original copy of the prescription, Raghruama Bhandary, drugs
controller, government of Karnataka told Pharmabiz.
The License
number of Medybiz KA/BNG/20/23/29 and 20 B KN BNG3/2013 /1526 stands
cancelled. In the case of VLN Nirman Pharma, the license number
DCD/ADC/2B Circle 3 26/994/14-15 is also suspended.
The
department was able to nab the violators based on complaints from the
public. Medybiz Pharma had entered into an agreement with Health Kart
Plus to supply medicines to the customers. As per the agreement, Health
Kart Plus transferred the medicine order details along with the scanned
copies of prescription to Medybiz. The latter delivered the drugs to
consumers and collected the payment from the patient’s residences.
Medybiz
also had a pharmacist at their premises who could be contacted by
phone. For dispensing purposes the pharmacists pack the medicines in
tamper proof packs.
For the HealthKart orders, Medybiz received
the prescriptions which were printed out, stamped and kept as records.
Based on the prescriptions’, Medybiz prepared the invoice and delivered
the drugs on the same day. If the customer refuses to accept the parcel
of drugs, then the invoices are cancelled and medicines are transferred
to the inventory.
Further, Medybiz was not just engaged in local
drug dispatches but to locations across India. The drugs which were
being sold online by the Medybiz included cardiac, nephrology
formulations and diabetic drugs like Janumet. The company was not
mentioning the names of the prescribing doctors and dispatching them to
the patients.
In the case of VLN Nirman, drugs sold included
antipyretic to epilepsy and diabetes, hypertension and cardiac care,
cholesterol reduction among others.
The licences were issued to
pharmacy outlets and there was no inkling that these companies were
engaged in online trading of medicines, he said.
While the
contention of the online traders was that most of the patients were aged
and suffering from chronic conditions. Their kith and kin were strapped
for time to purchase drugs from pharmacy stores and opted for the
online route. These companies considered it as a philanthropic service
to deliver the drugs to the patients door steps although it was a
serious violation of the D&C Act & Rules. Therefore cancellation
of licenses and issue of show cause notice was the only way to stall
such infringements, said the Karnataka drugs controller.
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