When you walk into a neighbourhood medical shop in Pune, you probably don't think about whether they're licensed. You assume they are. That assumption is usually correct — but it's worth knowing what the licence actually means, especially when you start ordering medicines online.
What CDSCO actually is
CDSCO stands for the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation. It's the national regulator that decides which medicines can be sold in India and who's allowed to sell them.
Every pharmacy that legally dispenses medicines in India holds a drug licence, issued under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. The licence specifies:
- Who can dispense (a registered pharmacist must be on-site)
- What categories of medicines are allowed (general, Schedule H, Schedule X, etc.)
- The exact physical location where the pharmacy operates
You can verify any pharmacy's licence number through the State Drugs Control authority. In Maharashtra, that's the FDA Maharashtra portal.
Why this matters more online than offline
In a physical store, the licence is usually on the wall. You can see the pharmacist. You can read the label on the bottle and check the expiry date.
Online, all of that is invisible.
A 2024 industry estimate suggested that roughly 20% of medicines sold through unregulated online channels in India are counterfeit, expired, or improperly stored. That number is contested — the regulators say it's lower, some independent studies say it's higher — but the underlying problem is real. When you can't see the source, you can't verify the safety.
What "MediGrab is a facilitator" actually means
A lot of online medicine platforms are also the seller — they hold stock, they invoice you, they ship from their own warehouse. That model works, but it puts all the trust on one platform.
MediGrab works differently. We don't dispense medicines. Every order on MediGrab is fulfilled by a CDSCO-licensed neighbourhood pharmacy — the same kind of shop you'd walk to if you weren't using us. We verify each pharmacy's drug licence before they go live on our network.
When your order arrives, the bill clearly shows:
- The pharmacy that dispensed it
- Their drug licence number
- A breakdown of what you paid for the medicine versus the delivery
If you ever want to verify the bill, you can cross-check the licence number with the FDA Maharashtra portal. It's the same way you'd verify any physical pharmacy.
What you can do as a customer
Whether you order from MediGrab or anywhere else, here's a short checklist for ordering medicines online safely:
- Insist on knowing which pharmacy is dispensing the medicine. "Sold by [Platform Name]" without a pharmacy name is a yellow flag.
- Look for the drug licence number on the invoice. Real pharmacies print it. Counterfeit operations don't.
- Check the expiry date when the medicine arrives. Don't assume — actually read the strip.
- Watch the packaging. Genuine pharmaceutical packaging in India has clear batch numbers, manufacturer details, and MRP printed (not stickered over).
- Prefer COD for first orders when trying a new service. It gives you a chance to inspect what arrived before paying.
Why we built MediGrab this way
The honest reason is that we don't think you should have to choose between fast and trustworthy. The two have been treated as a tradeoff in the Indian e-pharmacy market for too long. By plugging into the network of pharmacies that already exists in your neighbourhood — instead of building a parallel warehouse system — we get both.
Your medicine arrives in 30 minutes. The pharmacist who dispensed it has a name, a face, and a licence number. That's not a complicated promise, but it's a meaningful one.
If you're in Pune and you've been wary of ordering medicines online, that's a healthy instinct. Try us once with a small, low-stakes order — a tube of antiseptic, a bottle of ORS, a strip of paracetamol — and look at the bill when it arrives. The licence number will tell you everything you need to know.