The issue of online sale and distribution of medicine has long been a controversial issue due to various obstacles and problems, and of course, it has not yet reached a conclusion.
According to the Iran digital economy annotation, last week, the issue of drug distribution through platforms was discussed and investigated at the fifth meeting of the Health Economics Commission of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce. A day after that, the secretary of the regulatory and policy making working group of the digital economy headquarters of the scientific vice president, referring to the pursuits of this vice president for the online distribution of medicine through platforms, announced that the Food and Drug Organization is developing guidelines in this field.
Masoud Sharifi said about the latest situation of online drug sales through platforms: In July last year, the Scientific Vice-Chancellor made a resolution regarding online drug sales in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, which was also approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. Based on its two-month deadline, it was decided that the Ministry of Health should formulate a guideline in this regard, but due to the drug crisis and the changes in the managers of the Food and Drug Organization at that time, this was not achieved.
The secretary of the regulation and policy making working group in the digital economy headquarters of the scientific vice-chancellor added: After this matter, with the follow-ups of the scientific vice-chancellor, we requested the presidential legal vice-chancellor to enter into this issue in several meetings, and finally, a resolution was issued for the sale of drugs on the Internet in July 2023.
Of course, after this approval, the Food and Drug Organization postponed the issue in a different way and announced that it is not our responsibility, and the legal assistant again came in and emphasized the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers. Sharifi stated that currently the Food and Drug Organization has deviated from its previous positions regarding the prohibition of online sales of drugs, and noted: If we look at the previous positions of the managers of this organization, they declared that this move is completely illegal, but in Now, fortunately, they have started a revolutionary movement.
The secretary of the regulatory and policy making working group in the digital economy headquarters of the scientific vice-chancellor continued: Currently, it has been decided that the Food and Drug Administration will develop guidelines for organizing the online sale of drugs, and the scientific vice-chancellor welcomes this issue, and of course we also have the sensitivities of We accept the field of health.
Referring to the holding of numerous meetings of the Scientific Vice-Chancellor with platforms that want to operate in this field, he said: In these meetings, the sensitivities of the Food and Drug Organization, such as the identification of the origin of the pharmacy and the issue of complying with the electronic prescription for registering prescription or non-prescription drugs, were brought to the platforms.
Stating that currently only two platforms sell drugs online, Sharifi said: Currently there are a large number of platforms that have the potential to sell drugs online. For example, one of these platforms stated that it has been waiting for 13 years to get a license to sell medicine. The Scientific Vice-Chancellor tries to remove as many obstacles as possible from the platforms to obtain licenses and sell drugs.
The secretary of the regulatory and policy working group in the digital economy headquarters of the scientific vice-chancellor also said about the advantages of online drug sales: Currently, many special patients are forced to go to several pharmacies due to drug restrictions, but online drug sales, in addition to saving time and It costs less for them, the gathering of patients in pharmacies is also less.
The Commission on Article 90 of the parliament criticized the lack of guidelines for the online distribution of drugs in a letter addressed to the Minister of Health on November 16, 1402. In this letter, the minister of health was warned that the case for him in the commission is being completed, and if the four-month deadline of the deregulation board expires and the task is not determined, the commission’s executive guarantee of Article 90 will be activated.
Nasrollah Pejmanfar, the head of the Article 90 Commission, has also emphasized in this letter that the time of ambiguity is over and now is the time to formulate the above guidelines (sending and distributing medicine online) with the participation of economic stakeholders.
At the beginning of the fifth session of the Health Economics Commission of the Chamber of Commerce, the head of the Health Economics Commission of the Tehran Chamber stated that the distribution of drugs in platforms can be examined from technical and legal aspects, and said: From a legal perspective, an important issue is the drafting of regulations that must be in accordance with the laws. be upstream and another issue is the fate of pharmacies whose economy is affected by this situation.
At the same time, this issue can fuel a new wave of migrations. Mohammad Abedzadeh raised the type of encounter of insurance organizations with online drug sales platforms and the legal restrictions as another issue to consider. He considered one of the challenges of these platforms to maintain the security of patients’ personal information and access to doctors’ prescription data and said: the access level of existing software provides the possibility of accessing confidential patient information using their prescriptions, and this possibility has been created for individuals and companies.
To use these software to see which doctor prescribes which medicine or test. This issue will become a serious challenge for the health system in terms of confidentiality of patient information.
Mina Azhugh, head of the Department of Pharmacies and Companies of the Food and Drug Organization, also explained about this in this meeting: Last summer, we were faced with the issue that we had to formulate regulations for the distribution of drugs through platforms in the Ministry of Health in cooperation with the Ministry of Communications.
Stating that the companies active in this field did not move towards legality, he continued:
“Unfortunately, there was no listening ear to pay attention to the opinions of experts in the field of health, and our expert opinions were not paid attention to.” The important point is that drug distribution and supply are completely different from each other. Now many broadcasting companies use the capacity of platforms for their logistics. Azhugh stated that any activity in the field of e-health requires obtaining permits from the Ministry of Health, and continued: Unfortunately, a suitable mechanism has not yet been defined in this field.
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