Mumbai: All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggist (AIOCD), a union of Pharmacy stores in the country, announced that they are planning to go on a strike on September 28 to oppose the online sale of medicines.

“We are observing one day strike on Friday, September 28 to protest against any move by the government allowing the sale of medicines through the internet or allowing e-pharmacies to operate in India in any form,” AIOCD said in a statement.

The organization President JS Shinde said that, if the government does not consider our appeal in a positive way then AIOCD shall not have any kind of option but to go for a nationwide indefinite agitation against online sale of medicine.

According to the organization, apart from many concerns put forward by them, the main and serious concern that comes to the fore is that online sales of medicines will, in fact, be hazardous to the public health at large. It also said that the sales will bring a commercial business loss for its members. And the move may bring irreparable damage to the tech-savvy young generation, the release said.

It further said that they have made repeated appeals by way of memorandums to the government, concern ministers and other departments, state food, and drug administration by citing “numerous cases of illegal online sale of medicines” by so-called e-pharmacies, and portals and observed twice a one day all India chemist’s bandh to make known the seriousness of this issue, Mr. Shinde said.

He further added that they expected transparent open-minded policies and not ‘crony capitalism’, few big players.

The government along with DPCO controls the prices of drugs. The total trade margin for the drugs is restricted to 16 percent to retailers and 10 percent to wholesalers. As per the observation, online players offer a deep discount of up to 50 to 70 percent openly, he said.

The protests come at a time when every kind of business is going into a digital mode and e-commerce is the only method of selling with a high growth rate. In the retail market, e-commerce platforms like Flipkart and Amazon to offer deep discounts bringing a worry to market retailers. Almost every company now has its own website with contact details through which to they conduct business. But the concern raised by the chemists stand valid with the fact that drugs cannot be sold in an open way. They are authorized to sell it only after seeing the doctor’s prescription.

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