Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Pharmacies Related to Public Health Care System
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58213/vidhyayana.v10isi3.2248Abstract
Pharmaceutical industry in India is the third largest and fastest developing industry in India. An E-Pharmacy is a pharmacy that operates over the internet by selling drugs, medicines and sending them to the customers. Internet making all the things easy and convenient. Patients can now buy use of prescription of registered medical practitioner order the medicines via use of internet and receive them at their own doorsteps. Online pharmacy is one of the technology advancements in creating huge demand in the upcoming days. Though it is convenient to buy drugs online as it causes high risk of self medication and misuse of drugs especially coming under the schedule H and X, so to overcome these risks local pharmacy may be preferred. In this article we have discussed about the advantages and disadvantages of online pharmacy. According to D and C act 1940 state that do not sell the drug like schedule X and schedule H drugs without prescription and without consent to the physician if pharmacist have doubt about the prescription. There are so many advantages of this facilities e-pharmacy on online pharmacy like as the cost effectiveness, free home deliver, instance serves, 24 X 7 availability. Similarly, when the technology is used for medical purposes, it gives rise to medico legal and techno legal issues with it. As when we deal with medicine there are number of drugs which are under schedule ‘H’ and schedule ‘X ‘. When this kind of medicines gets easily available then, obviously it will results into the wrong practice of the medication. While online medicine platforms have transformed healthcare accessibility, addressing these challenges is essential to ensure safety, reliability, and equitable healthcare delivery. This paper explores the merits, demerits of online medicine selling.
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