Chemists call for all-India strike on May 20

Mumbai: The war between online and offline sales of medicines is set for escalation as the All India Organisation of Chemists & Druggists (AIOCD) announced a daylong token all-India strike on May 20 to protest against the ‘predatory discounting’ by web companies.

The organization has warned that over a million retail chemists and wholesalers across the country face “economic ruin” due to online sales unless the Centre urgently intervenes.

Drumming up support for the cause, a delegation met Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal today (May 16) in Mumbai, and top leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), including ex-CM and Shiv Sena (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray.

AIOCD President Jagannath S. Shinde said the prime demand is to scrap two contentious Government orders of August 28, 2018 and August 28, 2020, which allegedly opened the floodgates for unchecked online medicine sales without proper safeguards.

He explained how the Centre had promised to introduce a foolproof ‘e-prescription mechanism’ as early as July 2019 when the e-pharmacy operations were at an nascent stage with a handful of players, but “nothing concrete has happened till date”.

“Now, more than 130 online players freely sell medicines and offer massive discounts without any effective monitoring system. This spells risks for the industry and the patients who are lured by the huge concessions. Our repeated pleas to first put technology and regulatory systems in place before allowing e-commerce in medicines remain unheeded,” a peeved Shinde told ‘The Perfect Voice’.

Late Implementation

In February 2023, the AIOCD shot off a representation to the Centre after which the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) issued directions mandating e-prescriptions for online medicine platforms. However, it is yet to be implemented even after three years, he added.

Shinde claimed that the original notifications were challenged by the AIOCD and the courts had granted a stay, but the online sales of medicines continued unhindered.

Satara-based Jeevan Medicals Director Shivajirao Katkar said that during the nationwide lockdown, the chemists/pharmacists had asked permission for home delivery of medicines to patients and hospitals during those trying times, which was granted through a March 26, 2020 notification.

However, after the pandemic ended, food delivery companies like Swiggy, Zomato, or Blinkit and others including Amazon, entered medicine delivery in a big way, followed by many more. Today, even controlled drugs are reaching patients directly with virtually no oversight from DCGI or other local drug control authorities, he alleged.

The AIOCD has accused e-pharmacy and quick-commerce firms of tinkering with the traditional pricing structure of medicines, regulated by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), even as official sources reveal how highly-regulated medicines, sedatives, MTPs, sedatives and even ‘fake medicines’ are reportedly hawked online or through the ‘Dark Web’.

“Under existing norms, wholesalers earn margins of between 8-10 pc while retailers get 16-20 pc, depending on whether medicines are price-controlled or decontrolled. Against this, a majority of the online companies are showering discounts ranging from 20 pc-50 pc directly to the consumers. In such a scenario, the small retailers and even big wholesalers simply cannot survive in the business,” Shinde rued.

The AIOCD has sought an immediate curb on deep discounting under the Drug Price Control Order, or abolishing all price restrictions altogether to allow offline traders to compete with online players on equal terms.

Warning of a massive disruption in medicine supply chains that could hit crores of patients and lakhs of hospitals/clinics across India, the AIOCD said if no concrete measures are forthcoming, chemists and druggists across India will observe a total bandh on May 20.

AIOCD may lose Rs 21,000-cr

The AIOCD’s nationwide proposed daylong token strike could lead to a loss of at least Rs 21,000-cr, said AIOCD President Jagannath S. Shinde.

“In India there are 11-lakh retail chemists/pharmacies from urban centres to the most far-flung villages in all states, and 150,000 wholesalers. The annual sales of medicines and medical products is more than Rs 250,000-cr, of which the AIOCD commands a 90 pc share,” he said.

There are no reliable estimates on the turnover of online players, but with the huge discounts they offer, it is spelling a slow death for the offline players, and many maybe forced to shut shop, Shinde predicted.