India Pharma Outlook Team | Thursday, 03 March 2022
Medicine retailers and distributors in Delhi have urged the state government to issue an order restraining online and offline pharmacies from offering discounts.
"We have asked the government to intervene and issue an order to stop advertising, displaying and offering any discounts by way of using social media or putting up banners, hoardings, handbills, signboards which indicate any discounts offered," said Sandeep Nangia, president of Retail Distribution Chemist
Alliance (RDCA), which represents 14,000 retailers and distributors of medicines in Delhi. In this regard, the RDCA has also written to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, saying that many online and offline
medicine sellers advertise heavy discounts ranging from 10% to 80%. The practice of heavy discounting is "unethical" and may lead to influx of substandard and spurious medicines, "which in turn can play havoc with the lives of the patients", it said.
Pointing to the Delhi government’s move to restrain the display, advertisement and offering of discount on liquor in Delhi due to existing rules and licence policies of the state government, the RDCA said the government should have the same stance regarding online and offline medicine sellers offering discounts. The RDCA explained that sale of liquor and price regulation is under state government licensing policy, and similarly medicines can be sold in Delhi only with the licence granted by the drugs control department.
"Also, a retail price is by the central government-appointed National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) and the retail and distribution margins are fixed under the Drugs Price Control Order," it said, adding that the "unrestricted" offers of discounts do not allow a level playing field for the retailers of medicines.
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