Pharmacies of 1mg, Zepto, Instamart violating regulations: TG SAFE

Hyderabad: Telangana’s food and drugs regulator TG SAFE on Wednesday, October 28, inspected 106 medical shops linked to online pharmacies in the Core Urban Region (CURE) and issued show-cause notices to 32 of them for alleged violations of drug regulations.

The Drugs Wing of the Telangana Standards Authority for Food and Essential Drugs (TG SAFE) carried out the special enforcement drive. Its Enforcement Wing and Excise Enforcement personnel joined the checks, which tested whether the outlets were following the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and the rules under it.

Delivery platforms’ partner stores checked

The inspections covered licensed premises linked to online medicine delivery platforms Tata 1mg, Netmeds, Zepto, Apollo 24/7, MedPlus MART and Instamart, as well as their partner pharmacies.

TG SAFE did not say which platforms the 32 outlets served notices are linked to.

Medicines sold without prescriptions

According to officials, several outlets could not produce sales bills or purchase invoices. Others had not maintained prescription registers or Schedule H1 drug registers, and had sold prescription medicines without a valid prescription from a registered medical practitioner.

Some shops allegedly sold medicines without a registered pharmacist supervising the sale and had not kept proper records of sales and purchases.

Schedule H1 covers certain antibiotics, anti-tuberculosis drugs and habit-forming medicines. Chemists must record every sale of these drugs in a separate register, noting the prescribing doctor, the patient, the drug and the quantity sold.

TG SAFE said further action would be taken against the shops under the law. It warned that outlets linked to online pharmacies must meet all statutory requirements.

New regulator

TG SAFE was formed in August by merging the state’s Food Safety Department and Drugs Control Administration and is headed by senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Avinash Mohanty.

The government decided to roll out the new authority first in the CURE region because of the large number of food businesses and drug establishments there. CURE is the area inside Hyderabad’s 160-km Outer Ring Road.

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