Pharmacists Association’s opposition to the approval of internet distribution of drugs

The Pharmaceutical Association of Iran has once again opposed the online distribution of drugs and has asked pharmacies not to contract with platforms for the internet distribution of drugs.

According to Iran digital economy annotation, although the instructions for the online distribution of drugs through platforms have been approved and announced, the Association of Pharmacists, as one of the main opponents of the implementation of this plan, has asked all pharmacies in a notice to “…not enter into any contracts with platforms as long as the existing legal problems are not resolved and any cooperation has not been approved by this association and the medical system organization.”

This is while this instruction has been approved by the Minister of Health and the Food and Drug Organization. This is not the first time that the Association of Pharmacists opposes the implementation of innovative plans. In the past, this association also opposed the implementation of an electronic prescription. On the other hand, it is stipulated that this instruction should be carried out on a trial basis in a period of 6 months, therefore, it is expected that this instruction will be revised if it is implemented in this period of time and its strengths and weaknesses are determined. At the same time, this letter of the association causes its weaknesses and strengths not to be fully identified.

One of the reasons for this association’s opposition to the online distribution of drugs is to prevent the virtual Nasir Khusraw and to counter its development, as well as the protection of patients’ information, while the information of the patients is not provided to the platform, and according to this instruction, the platforms distribute only the medicine that is in the pharmacy through the pharmacies.

Protection of patients’ information is one of the excuses that this association used to oppose in the past and during the implementation of electronic prescribing. In a letter written by the Iranian Pharmacists Association to the then President Hassan Rouhani, he stressed that due to the problems of the electronic prescription plan, pharmacies will not be able to provide electronic prescription services. At the same time, this plan was implemented by the direct order of the president.

After the change of government, the Association of Pharmacists asked Ebrahim Raisi in a letter to postpone the implementation of the electronic prescription plan for 6 months, but he did not accept this request either. Even in the meetings to finalize the guidelines for the Internet distribution of drugs, opposition to the implementation of electronic prescribing was again raised, at which time the head of the Article 90 Commission seriously opposed the representative of the pharmacists’ association.

The Association of Pharmacists has emphasized in this letter that the role of pharmaceutical platforms is acceptable only at the end of the distribution chain and exclusively for its transportation, and that the provision of patient tracking to these platforms is against the law and as a possibility of leaking and publishing patient information to the insecure virtual space.

Currently, about 16,000 pharmacies are licensed to operate across the country, but there is no accurate information on the number of members of the Iranian Pharmacists Association.

Some experts in this field believe that the Association of Pharmacists is more concerned about limiting the activities of larger pharmacies, because in the instructions for the Internet distribution of drugs, the drug request is sent to all pharmacies around the user at the same time, and the user chooses between pharmacies, so smaller pharmacies can also compete with larger pharmacies.