The Maharashtra Food & Drugs Administration has asked e-commerce firm Snapdeal to stop selling prescription drugs such as Viagra and Ascoril on its website. It has asked Snapdeal to immediately de-list such drugs from its site.

The FDA is also investigating other e-commerce platforms such as Flipkart, Amazon, Shopclues and Ebay.

It is illegal to sell drugs to patients or customers without a proper prescription. Acting on a tip-off, FDA Commissioner Harshadeep Kamble had ordered a search of Snapdeal’s office in Mumbai.

The company has been asked to furnish details of retailers involved as well as documents, including agreements, invoices and payment details.

A Snapdeal spokesperson said that the company only acts as an intermediary between the sellers and buyers of products listed on the platform.

“Though we periodically educate sellers on engaging in fair and safe sale on the platform and consequences of selling inappropriate products, at times, sellers end up listing such products. Upon being notified of any such products, we delist the products and take appropriate action against such sellers. In this case, on receiving the notice, we have delisted the products and provided all information to the FDA team,” said a company statement.

The company had also shared the details of its fulfilment centre as required by the FDA team. During its visit to the fulfilment centre, the investigating team did not find any such product, the company added.

Earlier this year, Flipkart and Amazon were pulled up by international online petition forum Change.org for selling books and products related to foetal gender selection. They had to pull out these books after the companies were criticised online for gender discrimination.

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