Of restricted drugs, cost cuts, and strong denials

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Hello reader,

Happy Boxing Day! I hope you had a great time over the Christmas weekend. My family has a tendency to overeat during these festivities, so I’m grateful that antacids are easily available over the counter and even online – it makes preparing for the consequences of our actions a little easier.

In the age of ecommerce, a lot of medicines are readily available on the internet, although there are many more that are strictly controlled and require a doctor’s prescription. This is for good reason, of course – many of these substances have powerful effects and misusing or abusing them can lead to tragedy.

But the internet has created opportunities for people to slip past or sidestep restrictions. And in Indonesia, telehealth platform Halodoc is being put under the microscope for allowing that to happen.

Today we look at:

• How Halodoc enabled the sale of restricted drugs on its platform
• Sea Group’s decision to halt salary increases and cut down on bonuses
• Other newsy highlights such as Byju’s denial of allegations that it bought children and parents’ data and layoffs at TuSimple

By the way, this is the last edition of our Daily Newsletter for the year – we’ll be back on January 3, 2023. Here’s to the rest of 2022!

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Restricted drugs and telehealth

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Halodoc, one of Indonesia’s most well-known healthtech companies, is under scrutiny in its home country after Tech in Asia found that at least 11 drugs prohibited from being sold online are available on the platform, including erectile dysfunction and antipsychotic drugs.

• Not just once or twice: Tech in Asia has learned as well that prescription drugs can be bought through Halodoc with little to no oversight. Halodoc does require a person to consult a doctor on its platform before being able to buy the drug. But Tech in Asia found that in more than one instance, people could easily buy prescription medicine by just asking the doctor for it.
• Roles and responsibility: Halodoc says it works with “trusted partners only” and has 20,000 licensed doctors onboard. The company claims that as a digital platform, it does not directly sell medicines – prescribed or otherwise. Openspace Ventures, an investor in the startup, says that Halodoc has established “additional independent measures to safeguard against misconduct from any provider found to be failing to live up to their individual legal responsibilities and duty of care.”
• Lapses and consequences: While a telehealth platform may not be held responsible for the conversations between a doctor and a patient on its portal, it risks getting into trouble when doctors write prescriptions for drugs that aren’t allowed to be sold online or without making thorough checks, with the penalties including imprisonment and hefty fines. The firm could also lose its electronic pharmaceutical system operators (PSEF) license, which it needs in order to be legitimately recognized to purchase medicines.

Read more: Temasek-backed Halodoc enabled sale of restricted drugs

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