The new regulation on the supervision of online drug sales went into effect in December

Beijing, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Zhao Wenjun and Dai Xiaohe The State Administration for Market Regulation announced on Monday the Measures for Supervision and Administration of Online DrugSales, which will take effect from December 1, 2022, to further implement the main responsibility of drug distributors and the responsibility of compacting online drugsales platforms.

The administrative measures specify the qualifications and requirements of drug dealers engaged in online drugsales, and specify according to law that vaccines, blood products, narcotic drugs, psychotropic drugs, toxic drugs for medical use, radioactive drugs, pharmaceutical precursor chemicals and other drugs under special administration by the State shall not be sold online.We need to strictly manage the whole process of pharmaceutical operations and set clear requirements for the whole process management of online pharmaceutical sales enterprises, such as quality and safety management systems, pharmaceutical care, drug storage and distribution, drug traceability, risk control and information disclosure.

The management approach also made clear the third party platform should be set updrug quality and safety management agencies, with pharmaceutical technical personnel, set up and implementation of the quality and safety of drugs, pharmaceutical information display, prescription audit, prescription medication real-name, drug delivery, transaction records, adverse reaction reports and complaints to report, management system, and in accordance with the provisions for the record.The platform is required to sign an agreement with online drugsales enterprises to clarify the responsibilities of both parties for drug quality and safety, stipulate that the platform should fulfill the obligations of audit, inspection and monitoring, as well as stop service and report if serious violations are found, and strengthen the cooperation obligation of the platform in drug recall, emergency response, supervision and inspection.

Meanwhile, the real-name system for online sales of prescription drugs will be implemented in accordance with the prescription review and deployment provisions.Prescription and over-the-counter drugs should be displayed separately, and it should be made clear that packaging, labels and other information should not be displayed directly on the front page and home page where prescription drugs are sold;;Before passing the prescription review, no information such as instructions shall be displayed, and no services related to prescription drug purchase shall be provided, aiming to emphasize the management requirements of "prescription before medicine" and prescription review. Before selling prescription drugs, consumers should be fully informed of relevant risk warning information and confirmed by consumers to effectively prevent drug safety risks.

In addition, the administrative measures also clarify the corresponding legal liability for illegal online drug sales. To strengthen the control of drug safety risks, if there is evidence that there may be hidden safety risks, it is clear in accordance with the law that drug regulatory authorities can take measures such as warning, interview, rectification within a specified time limit, and suspension of production, sale, use and import.