Shopping online is fast and easy, but sometimes when the order arrives it will be the wrong size or colour – or perhaps even a fake version of a brand-name item. That’s frustrating when it’s a T-shirt or a pair of shoes, but when it comes to medicines, low-quality and counterfeit products can kill.
Online shopping for pharmaceuticals is big business in Indonesia. It offers plenty of price options, and apps such as Halodoc and K-24. Some apps are approved by Indonesia’s food and drug authority, so consumers believe this is a safe way to get medicines. They are also glad to avoid the queues and administrative hassles of the puskesmas (government-run clinics), where it’s said the medicines are low quality anyway.
The Indonesian health ministry launched regulations in 2020 to control online pharmacies and protect society from fake medicines. Of the thousands of online pharmacies, only 12 have an online licence. The rest are illegal and potentially sell fake medicines. None of the pharmacies on popular e-commerce platforms are registered with the ministry, even if they seem to have an ‘official store’ logo and have been verified by the platforms. The regulation and e-commerce effort to control them seems far away from success, sellers are adept at manipulating the system trying to ban them.
