The health ministry also exempted sale of hand sanitizers from all licenses under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, according to a notification dated July 27.
The Union health ministry has exempted hand sanitisers from licensing for sale and stocking, to enable wider availability during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare also exempted sale of hand sanitizers from all licenses under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, according to a notification dated July 27.
The order, published in the Gazette of India, was effectively immediately from the date of the publishing.
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According to a Mint report, the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) has criticized the move, claiming that it will lead to the sale of substandard products.
The association of chemists also wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking that hand sanitizers should be sold only at pharmacies, the report said.
"The sanitiser also contains drugs like chlorhexidine, hydrogen peroxide, isopropyl alcohol, glycerol, ethanol (95 percent), propylene glycol, etc, which needs to be bought and sold in licenced premises. When a sanitiser is sold in a pharmacy, there is government machinery to control and check the quality," AIOCD said in the letter dated 21 July.
The Centre had started inspecting samples of hand sanitisers after it received complaints of substandard products, The Print reported earlier in July.
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