Can online pharmacies address health inequalities in low- and middle-income countries? The International Forum on Patient Safety and Safe Access to Online Pharmacies, New Delhi, India (1-2 March 2017) thinks they will

The Government of India, Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies (ASOP), Consumer Online Foundation India, and other state and non-state Indian actors hosted a two-day International Forum on Patient Safety and Safe Access to Online Pharmacies at a purpose-built policymaking hub, the India Habitat Centre, in the heart of New Delhi’s Lodhi Estate in early March 2017. The event was attended by over 160 health policy elites and three of the most influential global health regulators: the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the European Medicines Agency, through the UK Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency, and the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for South-East Asia.
Why did these policy leaders and regulators turn up at this event in a lower-middle-income country?
First, the Indian pharmaceutical industry is a waking giant; it is already supplying many of its generic and even innovative medicines to foreign healthcare systems, including the UK’s NHS and Medicaid/Medicare/Obamacare in the US. Secondly, India is a colossus in the field of information technology (IT) and software engineering, especially in telemedicine. Indian companies such as InfoSys, Tata Consultancy, and WIPRO are competitive globally. Put the two above factors together and you get your answer: online pharmacies (OPs) are going to become big business in the future, with India set to dominate the market for software and generic products. OPs, the forum heard, are offering an opportunity for pharmaceutical companies to expand their markets directly to patients, bypassing all middlemen. Like the online air travel business, they promise patients an accessible, 24-7, quality medicines market at affordable prices. There will be no overhead costs, such as heating and lighting, large shop fronts and rentals, nor the security and cleaning services required by brick-and-mortar pharmacies. OPs, thanks to economies of scale and IT use, make medicines more accessible and affordable. They would therefore address health inequalities and improve choice. For patient advocates and regulators present there, the forum provided reassuring messages that in low- and middle-income countries OPs will solve quality and safety issues along the supply chain through traceability and remote intelligent monitoring algorithms. Unethical practices and fraud found in traditional medicines networks will not exist online as ALL transactions along the OP supply chain will be electronically logged and...


View full text...