Janjivan Bureau / New Delhi: The All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists has called 24-hour nationwide strike starting from May 29 midnight to protest against the Centre’s move to regularise sales of medicines through e-pharmacy.
The organisation said online sale of medicines is illegal as per the present provision of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945.
“We are against the online sale of medicines, which may prove detrimental to the health of patients. The online service, which the government wishes to provide to patients, will not only result in storage problems, but may also affect the quality of drugs being supplied. It will be difficult to ascertain the ‘credibility’ of the drugs supplied and the time involved in the supply, especially in case of life-threatening emergencies.” said organisation.
Vinay Jain, general secretary of the association, said, “The Drug and Cosmetics Act will receive a severe blow as drugs will become everyone’s property without any check on their authenticity and usability. The easy availability of each and every drug, including habit-forming drugs, may tell upon the patients’ health and lead to a drug menace.”
Association members sent a tweet to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Health Minister JP Nadda regarding the issue.
“We have decided to go for nationwide strike on October 14 to protect health of general public as well as interest of our 8.5 lakh chemists in 30 states,” AIOCD president JS Shinde told .
“We may resort to indefinite strike, if the Centre fails to resolve the issue immediately,” he said. The AIOCD president said we strongly oppose the government’s move to regularise sale of medicines through internet that is ‘e-Pharmacy’ in larger public interest. However, Shinde claimed it was illegal to sell medicines on internet under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940.
“The threat of drug addiction in youth looms large due to easy availability of drugs through internet and irrational use of medicines,” he added. An online pharmacy is an internet-based vendor of prescription drugs. Recently, the Maharashtra Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has raided 27 online pharmacies located in Mumbai, Thane and Pune and seized drugs worth crores. “We feel that opening of doors to internet for e-pharmacy in India cannot be compared with the developed countries.
