Late in March, Rohini Lakshane placed an order for a variant of a painkiller on Pharmeasy, a healthcare “super app” offering medicine delivery, teleconsultations, and diagnostic tests.

The medicine is usually available in big pharmacies around four kilometres away from her home in Mysuru, but the technologist in her 30s wanted to save time on travel.

On healthtech platforms like Pharmeasy, one is required to upload the doctor’s prescription when ordering certain medicines. For those like Lakshane, who don’t have one, the e-pharmacy offers free doctor consultations through Docstat, a third-party platform.

Soon after placing the order, Lakshane got a call from a doctor. During the two-minute call, she found the person’s behaviour “unethical”. While he agreed to give a prescription for the painkiller Lakshane wanted, he seemed “overly enthusiastic” about prescribing a supplement to “fill the gaps in her nutrition”.

“He had no basis to determine those gaps—I hadn’t shared any medical history or test results. Nor was there any physical examination,” she said.

Many people across India X Post by Abhijit Majumder Read more across India X Post by Abhijit Majumder , including Shounak Dutta from West Bengal, have experienced something similar in the past.

“The pharmacist [who called to confirm the order] asked me if I were interested in buying some Ayurvedic products and explained some of them to me,” said Dutta, who placed an order for his grandmother’s heart ailment a year ago.

Unlike Lakshane, the 27-year-old media professional had attached a valid prescription with the order.

Two former Pharmeasy executives and five pharmacists (former customer delight officers at the company) who spoke with The Ken said there is a daily-target pressure to sell a certain number of private-label supplements, generic medicines, and lab tests. They and several others quoted in the story declined to be named as they didn’t wish to comment on the subject publicly.

Late last month, Pharmeasy raised Entrackr Exclusive: PharmEasy raises $216 Mn led by MEMG at $710 Mn valuation Read more raised Entrackr Exclusive: PharmEasy raises $216 Mn led by MEMG at $710 Mn valuation Rs 1,804 crore (US$216 million) with a 90% haircut in valuation. But long before that, sometime around 2021, the company had started pushing supplements and making follow-up calls (even in cases where valid prescriptions are uploaded) amid ballooning losses Inc42 IPO-Bound PharmEasy’s Loss Widened To INR 641.3 Cr, Revenue Soared To INR 2,360 Cr Read more ballooning losses Inc42 IPO-Bound PharmEasy’s Loss Widened To INR 641.3 Cr, Revenue Soared To INR 2,360 Cr and immense pressure from investors to show profitability, said the aforementioned former executives.