E-Pharmacy giant Amazon under Maha FDA radar for selling MTP kits without prescription

Thane: The Maharashtra FDA has registered an offence against Amazon for selling Abortion Drugs on line allegedly illegally.

The Assistant Commissioner of FDA Ganesh Rokade stated in an official release here that the Food and Drugs Administration had observed that abortion drugs were being sold illegally on online portals through the internet. In order to verify this, the demand for MTP kit without prescription was registered on online sales portals. It was found that the abortion medicine under the brand name A-Kare was available on the online portal amazon.in. The demand for the MTP kit drug was accepted by the amazon.in without the requisite prescription of the registered medical Practitioner. The MTP Kit by the brand name of 'A kare' Tablet was received; however the sale bill of the drug was not received along with the courier parcel. This administration inquired about the sale of above MTP drug to Amazon Sellers Services Pvt Ltd, it was informed that the drug was supplied from Orissa.

Further investigation based on the information provided by Amazon revealed that the drug was not supplied by the seller in Orissa but the seller ID was registered by another person on Amazon's online portal using the documents of said drug store. The MTP kit is a 'Schedule H' drug under the Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940 and it is mandatory to sell it only on the prescription of a registered medical practitioner. Also, according to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 2002 and Rules, 2003, it is mandatory to use this medicine at health facility and under the supervision of a service provider. The list of items sold through the online portal amazon.in does not include the commodity drugs.