Last week, sources informed MediaNama that e-pharmacy platform Pillup will be winding down its operations by November 25th. In conversation with MediaNama, Pillup's Co-founder Ankur Solanki clarified that the plan isn’t to shut down—and that regulatory clarity is needed for businesses like Pillup to remain viable in India. Pillup provides consumers with pre-sorted sachets of their medical prescriptions. The individual sachets delivered to consumers contain all the tablets they need to take for that day—an alternative to the medicine boxes often used to segregate and store daily tablets. The company is headquartered in Delhi, and officially launched in October 2022. “We are doing our best on what we can do for the customers [safety], but we're open to suggestions from the regulatory body [on more things we should be doing],” said Solanki, speaking to us on Friday. “Our dialogue needs to be open. Right now, everything is in silos.” Understanding the context: Solanki’s comments come in the backdrop of a sector that remains under-regulated in India. Multiple e-pharmacies offering different services—including medicine deliveries—have cropped up of late. However, some argue that these online platforms violate critical provisions of India’s drug regulations, like the Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940, and the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945. Legal challenges against platforms allegedly operating without the right licences are ongoing at the Delhi High Court, with the court issuing an interim stay order on their operations—multiple businesses like Tata 1mg, Pharmeasy, and Apollo have reportedly been served notices by drugs controllers under the…
