All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) is likely to postpone the ‘one day all India pharmacy strike’, scheduled for November 23 since the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has called the office-bearers of the national trade body for a meeting to discuss their issues.
The meeting will be held at the DCGI office either on Tuesday, or on Wednesday in New Delhi, said Suresh Gupta, general secretary of AIOCD. According to him, the organisation will firm up its stand, either to go with one-day strike or regular bandh, after the office-bearers’ discussion with the government.
He said the scheduled meeting is a follow up of the meeting held with the government on November 7 by a team led by him. They met the Union health secretary, DCGI, CDSCO and the president of the Pharmacy Council of India and discussed various issues affecting pharmacy trade and profession in the national level. But, no positive step was taken by the government on the decisions of the meeting.
Sources from AIOCD said the decision to hold one day national pharmacy bandh has come in the wake of blatant apathy of the government in restricting the slowly progressing illegal online pharmacy trade in various parts of the country. E-pharmacy has already taken the shape of a business mode for which specific guidelines are yet to be announced officially. Allegations are that a few e-commerce companies which have started the e-business of pharmaceutical products are selling even the prescription drugs by online.
Another thing that persuaded the chemists and druggists’ organisation to call for national pharmacy strike was due to the national drug regulator’s alleged indifference to speed up action on Bombay High Court order that wanted the regulatory body to take steps to curb online trade of medicines illegally. Taking advantage of the unhelpful attitude of the government, the e-commerce companies have formed a national level association, Internet Pharmacy Association, to establish themselves as a separate entity for online trade. According to AIOCD, had the DCGI and other state regulatory bodies taken actions on time, the online traders would not have emerged in the form of an organised group.
On November 13, J.S. Shinde, president of AIOCD, while inaugurating the chemists' function organised by All Kerala Chemists and Druggists Association, said if the government is going to legalise online pharmacy with the support of Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 and Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, AIOCD will look for some other option with the help of information technology to withstand the situation as medicine business is the livelihood of more than 8 lakh chemists in the country.