The industry calls for increasing the access threshold for online drug sales

Source: People's daily.com, June 18, 2014, "men's selling fake drugs caused consumer discomfort and were sentenced to two years' imprisonment", "a health care product store in Fujian sold fake drugs, all of which came from online shopping", "men fell in love and took 100 pieces of diazepam to die, suspected of buying fake drugs online" In recent years, these fake drug news make the public talk about online drug shopping In order to regulate the behavior of online drug sales from the source, on May 28 this year, the State Food and Drug Administration issued the notice on public consultation on the Internet food and Drug Administration (Draft for comments) (hereinafter referred to as the draft for comments) on its official website, absorbing the opinions and opinions of the public and medical industry personnel According to Article 8 of the exposure draft: Internet drug dealers should sell prescription drugs according to the requirements of drug classification management regulations; this means that it will break the taboo of not selling prescription drugs on the Internet in the past, and will have a profound impact on the development pattern of drug circulation industry in the future In this regard, dozens of pharmaceutical industry associations and enterprises gathered in Changsha today to study and discuss the measures At the seminar, many insiders believed that opening the Internet to sell drugs and prescription drugs in an all-round way would seriously harm the safety of online purchase of consumers; whether the access threshold of online sale of drugs could be raised, and through the pilot, we could find out the online sale and supervision mode of prescription drugs suitable for China's national conditions, and then gradually release the restrictions on online sale of drugs At present, the pharmaceutical industry has been strictly regulated by the state and ordered to prohibit the sale of prescription drugs on the Internet "If the relevant policies of online sales of prescription drugs are implemented, about 470000 pharmacies across the country can sell drugs online At the same time, individuals can also sell drugs online in the form of affiliated physical pharmacies The sales of fake and inferior drugs will make it difficult for relevant departments to supervise." Wang Wei, vice president of the China OTC Association, said worriedly At the same time, the release of prescription drugs on the Internet will make it possible to sell fake prescriptions on the Internet Xie Zilong, chairman of the general people's pharmacy, said: "it is difficult for online pharmacies to directly get the prescriptions issued by the hospital to patients They can only pass the paper prescriptions through video, fax, photo and other means for review It is difficult to identify the authenticity and legality of the prescriptions, and it is also difficult to query whether the prescribers have the prescription rights." According to statistics, in 2012, there were about 470000 drugstores and more than 3000 chain drugstores across the country The industry was very small and scattered The management level was uneven and there were incidents of fake and inferior drugs Only last year, the drug regulatory department investigated and dealt with more than 170000 drug cases If even the physical stores that were easy to supervise were still like this, then the full liberalization of online drug sales would face greater risks Especially at the present stage, the temperature and humidity of some physical pharmacies are still difficult to meet the requirements of drug storage, and the transportation link is difficult to meet the requirements due to the lack of necessary vehicles, heat preservation and cooling equipment and other conditions However, at present, the management level and conditions of ordinary express companies can not meet the requirements of drug distribution, and the drug is sold on the Internet in an all-round way The risk of drugs in the delivery process is difficult to control, which will directly threaten the internal quality of drugs, and will make online pharmacies become hotbeds for the sale of fake and inferior drugs To this end, Liu Zhongliang, executive vice president and Secretary General of China Pharmaceutical Materials Association, said: "drugs are special commodities, and ensuring drug safety is the first priority If we blindly reduce the access threshold of online pharmacies, the transportation conditions in the process of drug distribution will be difficult to guarantee, which will directly threaten the internal quality of drugs, and drug safety will not be discussed." Subsequently, the reporter randomly asked 5 Citizens whether they would choose to buy drugs online, and 3 of them answered without hesitation: "No." One person said that they would consider buying some common external drugs; another said that if they encounter some drugs in drugstores and hospitals that are tense, they would consider buying them online, but they would not choose to buy them online unless they had to Wang Wei, vice president of China OTC Association, has different views on the implementation of policies related to online sales of prescription drugs, and consumers can buy drugs with more affordable prices He believes that hospital and drugstore purchase is the traditional sales channel of drugs, 80% The above drug sales belong to hospitals; once the Internet drug market is opened, there should not be much difference in price compared with chain drugstores At the same time, most people buy drugs in community hospitals and designated medical insurance units If you can't use the medical insurance card or enter the reimbursement system when you buy prescription drugs online, then people prefer to choose traditional drug purchase channels "Strictly control online drug sales" proposal to the Ministry of Commerce and the State Food and Drug Administration At the end of the seminar, the reporter obtained for the first time the relevant suggestions on the measures for the supervision and administration of the Internet food and drug trade (Draft for comments) issued by the organizing committee to the State Food and Drug Administration and the Ministry of Commerce, from which he emphasized that he hoped that the relevant departments would improve the access threshold for the online sale of drugs, and found out the online prescription drug sales and Regulatory model, and then gradually release the restrictions on online drug sales In the proposal to the State Food and drug administration, it was written that after the research and discussion of industry associations and enterprises in the industry, it was agreed that the measures innovated the thinking of Internet food and drug management and supervision, providing more choices and convenience for consumers to access health services, and the pharmaceutical e-commerce will usher in a new round of development opportunities, but also may be strict with the measures We are deeply worried about the negative impact First, it will seriously threaten the safety of drugs Simply opening the access threshold and business scope of online drug sales will seriously threaten the drug safety of the masses; it will lead to the proliferation of fake and inferior drugs, the difficulty of ensuring rational drug use, the difficulty of meeting the requirements of drug storage and transportation conditions, and the threat to the internal quality of drugs; it will also increase the difficulty of supervision, the pressure of supervision, and the difficulty of confirming the legality of prescriptions; at the same time, lowering the access threshold will threaten the safety of drug use Threatening the network security of drug supply, affecting patients' drug purchase In the proposal to the Ministry of Commerce, it is mentioned that the measures will make it difficult to supervise online pharmacies, and many illegal enterprises will occupy the market share of regular physical pharmacies The illegal websites put on the legal cover, the illegal behaviors are more hidden; the regional differences affect the equal participation of physical pharmacies in the market competition; the unequal relationship between online pharmacies and physical stores may lead to vicious competition in the industry Therefore, it is suggested that the relevant departments should not completely prohibit the online pharmacies, let alone ignore them In the past, the regulatory authorities lacked management experience in online sales of prescription drugs, which made it very difficult to supervise At this stage, if the access threshold is lowered and the sales scope is relaxed rapidly, the situation may be out of control due to the failure of effective supervision, resulting in serious drug abuse, affecting the overall promotion of medical reform According to the above situation, the Organizing Committee of the seminar hopes that the Ministry of Commerce, as the competent department of the pharmaceutical circulation industry, will carefully investigate and study the actual situation of the industry and make suggestions to the State Food and Drug Administration: first, formulate management measures for the classification of drugs, medical devices, food, cosmetics and other products involved in the measures, and at the same time, work with laws and regulations and the 12th Five Year Plan The planning and industrial policies are consistent, and the opinions of industrial associations and enterprises in the industry are widely solicited When it is mature, one will be issued to ensure the operability of the regulations 2、 The entry threshold of online pharmacies should be raised appropriately 3、 Through the pilot, we can find out the online prescription drug sales mode and supervision mode which are suitable for China's national conditions On the basis of the pilot experience, we can gradually open the restrictions and promote them in an all-round way 4、 At present, drug distribution can not be entrusted by a third party, and online drug sales should realize face-to-face pharmaceutical care between pharmaceutical professionals and customers Link: online drug sales abroad: Italy, Spain, Switzerland and other countries completely prohibit online drug sales Germany stipulates that over-the-counter drugs can only be sold online Before June this year, both prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs were banned from online sales in Japan However, it is noteworthy that 306 violations have been detected in Japan within one day since the ban on online sales of over-the-counter drugs was lifted on June 12, 2014 The UK, the United States, Australia and other countries also have strict control over the access to online prescription drugs and online drugs