Online sales of prescription drugs "open the floodgates": convenient to buy does not mean that you can sell at will

On December 18th, the State Drug Administration issued a newly revised Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Drug Network Sales (Draft for Comments), which again publicly solicited opinions on regulating drug network sales and drug network trading services.
With regard to the issue of online prescription drugs of public concern, the draft provides for the sale of prescription drugs over the Internet, in accordance with the conditions of "ensuring that the source of electronic prescriptions is true, reliable, and in accordance with the relevant requirements for prescription transfer review, electronic marking of used prescriptions."
fact, the sale of prescription drugs online is not a new topic, many people have had the relevant experience.
the outbreak of new crown pneumonia, the online sale of prescription drugs effectively protected the daily drug demand of residents.
, for patients with chronic diseases and relatively fixed medications, online prescription drugs improve the efficiency of drug purchase and reduce the cost of buying drugs.
However, there are still many people have always opposed the attitude that the online sale of prescription drugs is difficult to ensure the safety of drug use, especially many drug sales platform threshold is low, the lack of strict audit link, improve the risk of drug use.
To cephalosporine dispersal tablets as an example, there are 100mg, 50mg and other different specifications, offline drug purchase pharmacists will be used to explain the drug dosage in the face, and patients self-purchase easy to overdose and other problems.
addition, many drugs for transport also have requirements, such as low temperature, light, moisture, etc. , but many takeaway distribution for the quality of drug transport can not be guaranteed.
is precisely in view of the safety risks of all aspects of the online sale of prescription drugs, for a long time, the country has not officially liberalized the online sale of prescription drugs.
this draft of the consultation, the industry believes that once the method is adopted, the online sale of prescription drugs is a real "open the floodgates."
"open the floodgates" means that stronger regulation must be relied upon to keep them safe.
and offline supervision, online sales have the characteristics of virtuality, concealment and so on, prescription drug online supervision is more difficult.
to ensure the safety of prescription drugs sold online, it means that the network sellers, sales platforms, drug distribution providers and other aspects of the supervision can not be relaxed, to form a complete regulatory closed loop.
for sellers, their drug sales qualifications and business scope should be clearly defined.
draft for comments points out that the person who can sell drugs through the network shall be the license holder of the drug market or the pharmaceutical business enterprise, and the sale of the drug network shall not exceed the mode of operation of the enterprise and the scope of the drug business.
, the main body of prescription drugs sold online must first and foremost be a entity enterprise that has obtained a license to operate drugs.
not obtain the retail qualification of drugs, the drug shall not be sold to individuals.
same time, prescription drugs should be purchased with a prescription from a medical professional, whether sold online or offline.
, ensuring that the source of electronic prescriptions is authentic and reliable is key to ensuring the safety of prescription drug online sales.
to this, experts recommend that as soon as possible through drug retail institutions and medical information systems, patient consultation information in a timely manner to the retail side, to protect the source of prescriptions.
, third-party platforms that play an important role in the online sale of prescription drugs should further clarify their obligations.
experts said that third-party platforms should conduct a rigorous examination of the qualifications of drug network sellers applying for entry, should check the published drug information, establish a complaint management and dispute resolution system.
It is worth noting that the new draft for comments on the quality management of drug distribution has made clear, requiring the selection of appropriate means of transport and temperature control according to the quantity of drugs distributed, transportation distance, transportation time, temperature requirements, etc., to ensure that the transport process meets the requirements, distribution activities can be traced, to ensure the "last kilometer" of drug use.
for drug regulators, the immedicacy and concealment of online sales place higher demands on regulatory effectiveness.
understood that the State Drug Administration is actively improving the national drug network trading monitoring platform construction, with information-based means to improve regulatory efficiency.
prescription drugs related to the drug market in an orderly manner, related to the life and health of patients, there can be no negligence pool.
in the context of the "Internet of Things", online sales of prescription drugs or the general trend, but easy to buy does not mean that you can sell at will.
only by firmly holding the safety bottom line can prescription drugs be sold online to maximize their value.
(Reporter Zeng Shiyang)