Selling of prescription medicine
During this time of COVID-19 some people have been buying Azithromycin and other drugs without any form of prescription for self-medication in case they are symptomatic. Don’t we have any law that regulates the business of selling medicine to final consumers? In other countries a pharmacist cannot sell certain types of drugs to the final consumer unless the buyer has a prescription from a doctor. Please guide.
IJ Moshi
It is against section 39(2) of the Pharmacy Act, 2011 and Regulation 3 of the Pharmacy (Prescription, Handling and Control of Medicine) Regulations, 2020 (GN No.266 of 2020) to sell or dispense a prescription medicine without a buyer producing a valid prescription issued by a registered medical or allied science practitioner.
The Pharmacy Act, 2011 defines a prescription medicine as a medicine product required to be dispensed only upon a prescription given by a registered medical or allied practitioner. Medicines other than prescription medicines can be sold or dispensed without a prescription issued by a registered medical or allied practitioner. Azithromycin is one of the prescription medicines which should not be sold without a valid prescription of a medical practitioner, and it is an imprisonable offence of upto 12 months to do so.