Mumbai: The drug controller, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has come down heavily on online pharmacies selling abortion pills to customers without prescriptions. The authority has filed a First Information Report (FIR) at Raigad police station against an Uttar Pradesh supplier, who sells abortion pills online across India.
This comes after an official from the Maharashtra Pharmacist Association (MPA) brought the issue to light, alleging online pharmacies were flouting norms by selling Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) pills online. “
I had ordered these abortion pills through Amazon and was not asked for any prescription while purchasing an (MTP) kit. This only goes to show there are so many websites operating illegally and selling such drugs. I have complained to the FDA,” said Kailash Tandale, president of the MPA.
According to an FDA official, at the moment, there is no law which has been formulated enabling regulations to be put in place. "This can lead to procurement of medicine for wrong reasons. People use this platform to purchase sleeping pills and MTP pills.
“We have detected one case where the online vendor was found to be selling the drug illegally and we have filed an FIR against the accused firm. The pregnancy termination drugs cannot be sold without a prescription and only MTP centres are authorised to use and stock them,” said Amrut Mikhade, joint commissioner, FDA.
Mukund Donglikar, an FDA drug controller from Pen, Raigad, said, buying and selling of medicines online is completely illegal. However, as of now, there are no regulations in place. “We investigated this incident and filed an FIR at Kamothe police station. These MTP pills were sent from Uttar Pradesh, further investigations will be carried out by the police,” he said.
