Tokyo Report: Online Drugs Sales Ban Meets Wide Dissent

Tokyo, March 2 (Jiji Press)--In an unusual development,
government-led discussions to review a new regulation on online sales of
drugs have started only three months before the regulation takes effect.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has issued an ordinance
to ban marketing of most over-the-counter medicines over the Internet,
effective from June.
The ordinance follows a series of incidents related to online sales
of drugs such as a young man suffering serious side effects from swallowing
a large number of sedative pills during a failed suicide attempt in 2006. He
had purchased them via a Web site operated by Rakuten Inc. <4755>, the
biggest online shopping mall operator.
The manufacturer of the tranquilizer allows drugstores to sell one
12-pill pack per person and ban sales to minors, because of the strong side
effects. The man was 19 years old when he attempted suicide.
The incident prompted patients with drug-induced illnesses to urge
the government to regulate online sales of medicines. "Consumers cannot tell
whether online sellers of drugs are good ones or not," says Kiyoshi Mamiya,
secretary-general for a group of people suffering from thalidomide toxicity.
But the ordinance has met widespread opposition from physically
handicapped people and seniors who cannot easily go out to buy medicines, as
well as those who live in isolated islands and other places without nearby
drugstores.
According to Rakuten, which conducted an Internet survey after the
health ministry released a draft of the ordinance in September last year,
some 570,000 people have so far signed a protest against the coming ban via
its Web site and one operated by Yahoo Japan Corp. <4689>.
Rakuten President Hiroshi Mikitani complains that the new
regulation ignores the opinions and wishes of the public.
The Council for Regulatory Reform, a key government advisory panel
on deregulation, also opposes the ordinance.
The widespread dissent forced health minister Yoichi Masuzoe to set
up a 19-member panel under his direct supervision to review the ban.
The ordinance will also impose strict restrictions on sales of
drugs by mail and telephone, a marketing practice adopted by traditional
herbal medicine producers.
Herbal medicine makers ask pharmacists to respond to telephone
inquiries from customers and prepare medicines before mailing them, says
Shotaro Kajii, head of an association formed by 34 traditional medicine
makers to oppose the ban.
The longstanding marketing practice is safer than OTC drug sales at
convenience stores and the ordinance to restrict it is "unjust," Kajii
stresses.
But it is uncertain how far the ordinance will be reviewed by the
new panel advising the health minister. Last July, 14 of the 19 panel
members were involved in the preparation of an advisory report in favor of
the new regulation.