Tamil Nadu: Nearly 40,000 pharmacies to be shut on October 14
Pharmacies are against the sale of drugs online.
The All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) has organised a strike on October 14. As a result, Tamil Nadu will see nearly 40,000 pharmacies shut on Wednesday. The strike has been called because the AIOCD wants a ban on sale of medicines online.
According to a report in Deccan Chronicle, the AIOCD said that selling drugs online would be harmful to people’s health and safety and that the quality of medicines would go unchecked. T Natarajan, General Secretary of Chennai District Chemists and Druggists Association, told the daily, “While booking medicines on the net, one is not sure whether all rules are followed in keeping these medicines in cold storage as mandated under the Act.” In the reports he also claimed that some websites were selling drugs in violation of the provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Rules, 1940.
The online sales of medicines will affect eight lakh chemists across India. AIOCD has stated that fake drugs could also enter the market as a result of online sales and that it was dangerous to sell medicines without a prescription.