CAIT urges government to act on e-pharma cos for discounts

NEW DELHI:  The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Monday alleged that e-pharmacies are conducting business practices in contravention of provisions of The Drug & Cosmetics Act, 1940. It said that primarily Pharmeasy, Medlife, 1Mg, Netmeds (now owned by Reliance Group), Amazon and Flipkart are misusing the e-commerce landscape by operating on rock bottom prices with 30%-40% discount and free shipping.

“It’s a case of capital dumping in these e-pharmacies by foreign behemoths, which is proving extremely detrimental to the future of the lakhs of crores of small chemists across the Country,’’ it said. 

CAIT national President BC Bhartia & secretary general Praveen Khandelwal said mushrooming of e-pharmacy is causing hardships to the retail chemists and distributors for anti-competitive practices like capital dumping and deep discounting, leading to predatory pricing.

“E-pharmacies with their financial backing by large foreign players/funds have started disrupting brick and mortar retailers due to the unmatched and often unsustainable pricing.” They added that the sale of prescription drugs and medicines through online mediums is illegal.

“The legal regime, under Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940, does not permit home delivery of prescription medicines for which a prescription “in original” is required.”

Bhartia & Khandelwal said predatory pricing is done with the sole intention of eliminating the competition. CAIT demanded intervention of government saying, “e-pharmacy has become another trade which is being targeted by these companies to capture and monopolise at the cost of lakhs of chemists and medicine traders.”