Mumbai: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials on Thursday raided the premises of leading e-commerce company Snapdeal at Goregaon (west) in north Mumbai and ordered the firm to delist prescription drugs such as Viagra and Ascoril cough syrup on its website.
“We have told Snapdeal to furnish us details like persons involved, the medical stories, companies involved and their respective documents like agreements, challans, invoices, payment details, etc. We asked the company to withdraw forthwith the sale of prescription drugs through their website. We also asked the company to delist the prescription drugs from its website with immediate effect,” FDA Commissioner Hardeep Kamble said here on Friday.
Kamble said that the company had agreed to withdraw the prescription drugs from its website. ”The company has asked the Delhi office to execute its decision,” he said.
Kamble said that as per section 18 (c) of Drugs and Cosmetics Act only a licenced retailer can offer for sale the drugs and that too only on the basis of a prescription. “Such an online sale of drugs is not allowed under the act. And also such kind of self medication may be harmful to the patients. Since Snapdeal-like agencies certainly cannot act as doctors or pharmacists, I ordered the search of offices Snapdeal and their godowns,” the FDA commissioner said.
Kamble has also asked his department officials to visit the office of Flipkart and Amzgon to find out whether they were engaged in such activities as well. “Through such vigilant actions, we are trying to control the menace of internet-based sale of drugs, which could be harmful to the patients,” the FDA commissioner said.
