Nagpur: Terming online sale of drugs or e-pharmacy as illegal, unsafe, leading to misuse of drugs, and undesirable competition, the All India Organization of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) has threatened a nationwide strike on September 28.The organization has called upon the Centre to consider their request of regulating online drug sales with proper laws and address the concerns associated with it. In case the government doesn’t honour the AIOCD’s request, the organization would observe all India bandh.Anil Navander, secretary of Maharashtra State Chemists and Druggists Association (MSCDA), told TOI that the biggest disadvantage of online sale is that medicines are given without verifying authenticity of the prescription, thus putting the life of patients in danger.“Mostly, these prescriptions are self-generated by the patient, are fake or are from non-allopathic doctors who too prescribe modern medicines without realizing the consequences of not prescribing the right medicine,” he said.A large number of drugs like Sildenafil, Tadalafil and various habit-forming drugs are sold without prescriptions. MTP kits are also sold online without the prescription of a gynaecologist. “Who will be responsible for complications arising with an abortion, which may even prove fatal? It may also encourage much younger girls to enter into sexual activity,” said Navander and added there have been cases of use of online drugs for committing suicides as well.People associate online sale with easy accessibility of medicine but the MSCDA officials claim that it is a myth. Navander explained that if a patient has high fever, diarrhoea, heart attack etc he would first approach his chemist and cannot wait for online drugs. “Hence, in all emergencies when your nearest chemists helps you and gives you as much discount why should you opt for online pharmacy?” he said.Many people claim that online sale allows much more discount than next door chemist. “The next-door chemist is forced to give ‘out-of-pocket’ discount which is not a sustainable option. This is like creating market for multinational companies at the cost of your chemists. Already Apollo, Med Plus, Wellness, Religare are competing with local chemists. We are not objecting to it. So, let there be heathy competition,” said Navander.The online drug suppliers are also accused of advertising openly which is not allowed as per the Drug Act and also encouraging doctors to create fake prescriptions even without seeing the patient.

Stay updated with all the Latest Nagpur headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.