The Telangana Drugs Control Administration (DCA) has issued Show Cause Notices to 41 medical shops linked to online pharmacies following a special enforcement drive conducted across the State to check compliance with drug regulations. 

The inspections covered 166 medical shops, including 159 establishments associated with online medicine delivery services and 7 shops linked to online business-to-business (B2B) platforms such as IndiaMART.

The special drive was carried out on June 6 to verify whether online pharmacy operators and their partner pharmacies were complying with the provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and the rules framed under it.

During the inspections, officials detected several irregularities. These included failure to maintain and produce sales bills for medicines, non-maintenance of prescription drug registers and Schedule H1 drug registers, inability to furnish purchase invoices for medicines, dispensing prescription medicines without valid prescriptions issued by registered medical practitioners, sale of medicines without the supervision of registered pharmacists, and improper maintenance of sales and purchase records.

Based on the violations observed, Show Cause Notices were issued to 41 medical shops across Telangana. The DCA stated that further action would be initiated in accordance with the provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and the rules made thereunder.

The DCA reiterated that strict compliance with statutory requirements is mandatory for all medical shops, including those operating through or associated with online platforms.