The Drug Consultative Committee (DCC) has recommended the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSO) to regulate the sale of medicines on online pharmacies, reports Economic Times. For this, a national portal should be created through which the drug sale can be monitored, according to the DCC. The report does not mention a timeline for the creation of this portal or its implementation. The report says that online pharmacies will need to display the national portal’s link on their website’s homepage through which their patients and consumers’ authenticity can be verified. The DCC also said that only e-prescriptions with digital signatures should be used by online pharmacies. The report does not mention how the digital signatures will be generated. Sale of online drugs can only take place when the prescriptions are in compliance with the Information Technology Act, 2000. Electronic prescriptions could be linked to Aadhaar Doctors would need to create electronic or physical prescriptions which can be scanned and uploaded by the doctor or patient to the portal. Each prescription would have a unique identification number, patient name and phone number, name and dose of the medicine, compounding and drug formulae and how many refills can be allowed. These prescriptions could be linked to users’ Aadhaar card, the report added. DCC also said that all e-pharmacies would need to be registered with the CDSO under the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 before they could sell medicines online. According to the report, the registration fee for an online pharmacy is Rs…
