Over 6800 chemist shops shut in Delhi

More than 18,000 retail pharmacies in Jharkhand remained closed on Wednesday after a call of a nationwide strike to protest against the Central move to regularise online sale of medicines.

Recently, the Maharashtra Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) had raided 27 online pharmacies located in Mumbai, Thane and Pune and seized drugs millions of worth, The Economic Times reported.

The dispute pits drug retailers, many of whom belong to the middle class voter-base of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, against the leader’s push to encourage tech and digital entrepreneurship in India.

“The government has no regulation over the online supply of drugs”, Bhopal Chemists’ Association president Lalit Jain told IANS.

“Only a limited quantity of medicine is sold online”.

Nationwide strike called by the Chemists and Druggists under the aegis “All India Organization of Chemists and Druggists” (AIOCA) did not affect the habitual strike and bandh hotspot Karbi Anglong district today.

Online pharmacies can depreciate the drug distribution system in India and can increase the adverse drug reactions, misuse of drugs and drug dependence, irrational use of drugs and selling of poor quality of drugs, he added.

The pharmacies say that online drug retailers are putting customers at risk by failing to follow existing rules.

It’s illegal to market medications on the web underneath the Cosmetics and Medicines Act.

Representatives from the AIOCD had met officials from the Ministry of health and family welfare on Monday. He said he welcomed the regulators, as the online industry wanted to engage them and work with them.

Around 7.5 lakh major chemists and drug shops remained closed across nation today marking a protest against the e-pharmacy guidelines.

Prasad Tamba, president of Chemist and Druggist Association, Goa said that India is a country with 125 crore population, which is already facing problems like huge shortage of doctors practicing modern medicine.

“Every chemist shop of the city was shut”.

But the chemists’ association says that it has put into place safeguards to protect against anything untoward. “We will try to provide emergency counters in each area so that medicines can be reached to the ones in need quickly and contacts will also be placed with police stations and authorities”.