Maharashtra FDA raids office of e-comm site for selling prescription drugs
Today's Times of India, Mumbai Edition reports that the Maharashtra state's Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) on Thursday raided the corporate office of e-commerce giant Snapdeal.com
for selling prescription drugs online. The agency got decoy customers to place
orders on the portal and raided their office once most of the orders were
delivered to respective addresses.
FDA commissioner Harshadeep Kamble said the
agency acted after receiving information that the portal was allegedly selling
Ascoril cough syrup and Vigora tablets (commonly prescribed for erectile
dysfunction) through the website.“These are prescription drugs and cannot be
sold in unlicensed premises. These drugs are only supposed to be sold under the
supervision of registered pharmacists and only when prescribed by a registered
medical practitioner. They cannot be sold like regular commodities,“ he told TOI,
adding they will check other online retailers for such violations.
Kamble added the FDA team had been working on
the tipoff for more than a month and got several people to order and receive
the consignments before they took action. The state agency raided their
corporate office in Goregaon, but did not find any of these drugs.“We will be
searching for the drugs in their Bhiwandi godown,“ Kamble added. “Snapdeal-like
agencies cannot act like doctors or pharmacies or encourage self-medication,“
the commissioner said.
When contacted, Snapdeal.com blamed the
sellers, adding the said medicines have immediately been delisted from the
site. “Snapdeal.com is an online marketplace, which connects buyers and sellers
to provide the widest assortment of products. The sellers selling online are
retailers and distributors, small and medium businesses and large brands who
typically sell offline too.Snapdeal acts as an intermediary between the seller
and buyer of the products listed on the platform,“ said a statement released by
the company .
It further added, “Upon being notified of any
such products, we delist them and take appropriate action against such seller.
In this case, we have delisted the products and provided all information to the
FDA team.“ They also said the FDA did not find anything on visiting their
fulfilment centre. The spokesperson also told TOI that Snapdeal.com has over 11
million products listed on their website. “Though we periodically educate
sellers on engaging in fair and safe sales on the platform and consequences of
selling inappropriate products, at times sellers end up listing such products,“
the spokesperson added.
The FDA said the violations under Section
18(C) of Drugs and Cosmetics Act are serious and can attract a penalty of Rs 1
lakh and imprisonment of three-five years. They will now be tracing the
distributors or the seller through which the medicines landed up being
advertised on Snapdeal.com. Last year, FDA had cracked down on 27 online firms
located in Mumbai, Thane and Pune for illegally selling Viagra to African and
European countries.
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