Chemists’ strike affects Madhya Pradesh

Over eight lakh chemists across the country will shut their shops for a day on Wednesday to oppose the central government’s alleged move to regularise the sale of medicines through e-pharmacies on the Internet.

The nationwide strike called by All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists received overwhelming response from brick-and-mortar drug retailers, who are up in arms against e-commerce companies that are gaining market share slowly but steadily in all segments including medicines.

President DRDCA said “we allowed a few shops to remain open to provide emergency service to the public”. They say online sales will lead to more cases of drug abuse as medicines will be sold without proper verification. Another issues is that of drug handling: certain medicines need to be temperature controlled, not exposed to sunlight etc, which may not be possible for online pharmacies to ensure once the drug leaves their warehouse.

Anand said the government should crack down any kind of online sale of medicines as it raises the risk of misuse of drugs.

Till now online sale of Prescription Drugs is not included in the provisions of The Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940. The Karnataka Chemists and Druggists Association said the stores remained closed till Wednesday midnight.

Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital and AIIMS outpatients’ departments witness daily arrival of around 8,000 and 10,000 patients respectively.

Representatives from the AIOCD had met officials from the Ministry of health and family welfare on Monday.

Even as the government has set up a committee to look into the online medical sector, chemists around the country have demanded an immediate ban on these sites until guidelines are in place. “Once the sale of local chemists goes down and people will not have other option then purchasing from online pharmacies, they will increase their prices”, he said.

“Mr. J. S. Shinde — President – AIOCD further said that, India is the country with 125 crore population, which already facing problems like huge shortage of doctors practicing in modern medicines.

Internet online pharmacies are supplying all the goods like I-pill, MTP kits, anti-depression, codien cough syrups without confirming the authenticity of prescription & patient.

The Union health ministry had said on Tuesday that the panel of drug regulators has had “preliminary discussions with stakeholders” over the issue of online sales of medications.