Medical shops to remain closed tomorrow

Chemists and druggists are protesting against online pharmacy business

Medicines will be available at Janata Bazaar, and pharmacists attached to hospitals and private nursing homes will function as usual. —PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM

Medical shops in the district will remain closed on October 14 as part of a nationwide strike against online pharmacy business.

Medicines will be available at Janata Bazaar and pharmacists attached to hospitals and private nursing homes will function as usual.

Manjunath, president of the Mysuru unit of the All-India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists, and Amanulla Khan, general secretary, said that the number of online pharmacies had increased in India owing to the growing e-commerce business.

Opposed

Opposing the move of the government to regularise sale of medicines through Internet, they said that the government had failed to understand that it was illegal to sell medicines on the Internet under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. They also blamed the government for not examining the adverse affects of Internet pharmacy.