The Presidential Science and Technology Vice President presented the draft of the activity of drug distribution platforms to the First Vice President in order to plan in the digital economy working group
According to Iran digital economy annotation, the Vice President for Science and Technology has submitted a draft to the First Vice President due to the Ministry of Health not providing this draft.
In June 2022, the Cabinet of Ministers, in Note 2, Article 8, of the regulation on supporting knowledge-based production in the field of health, mandated the Ministry of Health, within two months, in cooperation with the Ministry of Communications, to develop guidelines for the distribution of medicine through online platforms and businesses, respecting the principle of competition and preventing monopolies and notify.
However, after the end of the two-month deadline and numerous correspondences and follow-ups, the Presidential Legal Vice President, holding a meeting in June 2023, gave another two weeks to the Ministry of Health to issue this directive, but the Ministry has not yet taken any action in this regard.
Due to the failure of the Ministry of Health to fulfill the duties stipulated in the law, the board of deregulation of all licensed platforms or platforms from the Union of Virtual Businesses or other referrals for the licensing of Internet businesses that are in the field of drug distribution from pharmacies with valid licenses under The supervision of the Food and Drug Organization has announced that the final consumer activities are allowed to continue to operate until the guidelines are determined, without the need to obtain a new license.
Now, the scientific and technological vice president has announced the conditions for obtaining an activity license in the draft instruction that he sent to the first vice president.
One of the emphasized points of this deputy is membership in the country’s computer trade union organization or the country’s union of virtual businesses. Also, in order to enable accurate authentication, these platforms must be connected to Emta.
In November 2023, the Ministry of Health tried to fulfill its legal duty by presenting its proposal for the activities of smart operators to the Digital Economy Working Group, but the Digital Economy Working Group announced that the Ministry of Health should formulate a separate instruction for the distribution of medicine through platforms, but after The Ministry of Health did not provide a separate instruction in this regard to the Digital Economy Working Group.
The Ministry of Health has always stated that it is against the online distribution of drugs and one of the reasons for its opposition is the impossibility of the technical manager of the pharmacy to communicate with the recipient of the drug. Provide the connection between the pharmacy technician and the user.
The protection of users’ data has been another concern of the Ministry of Health officials over the past years, but in this proposed draft, the direct responsibility for protecting users’ data rests with the platform, and in case of information disclosure, the CEO of the platform has been identified as directly responsible.
The Ministry of Health has repeatedly emphasized that medicine should be distributed through pharmacies licensed by the Food and Drug Organization, and in this draft, in addition to emphasizing the distribution of medicine through authorized pharmacies and their address being clear, platforms from any warehouse of health products in this The draft is prohibited.
In the past two years, the Ministry of Health has practically opposed the activities of drug distribution platforms by not performing its duties as foreseen in various approvals, and in various comments, the announcement of the deregulation board’s position with other ministries in this field has also been called interference in the duties of this ministry.
Also, after increasing the pressure to fulfill his duties, the ministry canceled the only license issued by him for the online distribution of medicine, so that other parliaments and other institutions do not pressure him to issue new licenses due to the issuance of licenses for a platform.
Now, it seems that the Ministry of Health should either develop a guideline in this regard or, finally, the digital economy working group will review the guidelines proposed and presented in this working group and approve one of them.
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