Mumbai : Nearly 7,500 chemists from Mumbai and 72,000 chemists from across Maharashtra will go on a one-day strike from October 13 midnight. This has come after All India Organization of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) declared a nationwide chemist bandh to oppose the E-pharmacy sale of medicines and drugs.
Further, the AIOCD stated that they would go on an indefinite strike if their demands are not fulfilled by the government after the one-day strike.
AIOCD, the apex body of eight lakh chemists and distributors across the country, are protesting against illegal sale of medicine under the present provision of Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 and Rules 1945, covering increased risk of adverse drug reaction (ADR), easy opening to entry of low quality, misbranded and spurious medicines, big threat of irrational use of medicines and drug abuse among youth due to easy availability through the Internet in addition to the economic setback to eight lakh chemists and about 80 lakh workers and their families.
Elaborating on the issue, President of AIOCD JS Shinde said: “Despite sending letters (regarding illegal online sale of medicines) to Prime Minister, Union health minister, Drug Controller General of India (DGCI), National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) and other ministers of the states over the past two weeks, we have not received even a single reply and therefore we are left with no choice. At present, online pharmacy business is going on illegally and government authorities are not taking any action against them despite the foolproof complaints made by us.”
Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Joint Commissioner Omprakash Sadhwani said: “It is a pan-India issue and not just one city chemist association’s grievance and therefore, we need to speak with other officials and only then can we comment on it. However, we will have a word with AIOCD members in the next few days, understand their issues and convince them to call off their strike as we do not want to cause any inconvenience to consumers.”
