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.