India Pharma Outlook Team | Wednesday, 09 September 2026
The government's panel denies chemists' demand to end home drug delivery and maintains the 2020 rule in place.
The sub-committee considers that removing the notification would have negative impacts on elderly patients. Especially those with chronic conditions and those living in rural and remote areas who depend on doorstep services for their regular medicines.
Chemists from the All India Organization of Chemists and Druggists have demanded that the government repeal the provision since the digital platforms are exploiting it to sell drugs.
The panel, on the other hand, recommends that the current provisions be enforced more stringently. This decision will ensure access for the vulnerable groups and will guide regulators to halt irregular online sales.
Patient convenience and continuity of treatment is the focus of the sub-committee's reasoning. Those who are elderly, living with long-term conditions, and families living in locations without easy access to pharmacies rely on home delivery to get their prescriptions in time.
Without the legal path, they would be left with no viable alternative. Therefore, the panel considers the 2020 rule as a necessary support system and not a loophole. It recognizes the complaint of the chemists at the same time that it does not turn a blind eye to that.
Rather than canceling the rule, the members want more stringent schemes that will require digital platforms to adhere to all the steps outlined in the notification.
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Chemists have taken the government's concerns to heart, and now have questions of their own about online services selling products without checking original prescriptions. The Drugs Technical Advisory Board discussed the matter and formed a sub-committee and requested it to examine the matter in detail.
The sub-committee considers that the notification continues to have a valuable function after studying the evidence. According to its report, members are not keen on withdrawal as it would negatively affect rural and remote communities, senior citizens, nuclear families, single parents and people with chronic diseases. The answer to this, the panel said, is effective implementation to avoid irregular sales and ensure complete compliance.
The suggestion comes with a two-track solution. Digital platforms need to be better regulated to ensure that no medicine leaves a warehouse without a valid prescription and all procedures in GSR 220(E) are followed.
Meanwhile, the rule stays in place, which means that the delivery choice that many patients take every day is still available. This way, it can be avoided that the use of the service is suddenly interrupted for weak users, and at the same time the risk of unauthorized sales is addressed.
The panel's position suggests that policy will remain focused on access for the most vulnerable, as long as the protection measures specified in the 2020 notification are implemented as they are meant to be.
