Nationwide Chemist Strike on 14th Oct against online medicines
Druggists and Chemists all across India will
observe a One Day Strike (bandh) on 14 October.
This will be their protest against Sale of Medicines Online, as per
reports in National Media.
As per N Anandhan, Secretary of Tamil Nadu
Chemists and Druggists Association, around 7 lac Chemists across India will be
participating in the strike supporting the protest. This bandh has been called for by the AIOCD
(All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists).
Central Government has recently proposed
regularizing sale of Medicine Online after a few issues were taken into
cognizance when a few online portals had started selling medicines online. Anandan said that sale of medicines through
the online platform is not legal as there was a possibility that anybody could
buy medicines without a doctors prescription…and even when a prescription is
produced, it could be forged since the online process is immediate and there is
no scope for verification.
Chemist Strike is primarily to draw attention
of the Government on this issue.
http://udaipurtimes.com/nationwide-chemist-strike-on-october-14/
It`s unfortunate to see that Lakhs of chemists are making wrong decisions based on directives from few people in associations who have vested interests behind such strikes. We at Mera Medicare LLP (www.meramedicare.com) aspire to bring efficiency, transparency and innovation in the overall Healthcare sector but these kinds of strikes and blind following is truly regressive for the society.
ReplyDeleteLocal chemists don`t really understand who`s their competitor and who`s their partner and that`s why they are falling into this 'Bhed-chaal'. Hyperlocal Marketplace such as Mera Medicare is a true partner of these local chemists while chain pharmacies such as Religare, Apollo, Medplus are the real threats to the local chemists. Mera Medicare neither has any inventory nor plans to have one in the future. We can only do business in conjunction with local chemists. They are our life blood to be successful in this sector. On the other hand, Chain Pharmacies want to wipe out all the local chemists and grab 100% market share through their Inventory+ E-commerce model.
From our discussions with the pharmacies, we understand that they are only going on strike because of immense pressure from the association. Ironically, almost 20 pharmacies approached to us on 14th Oct to partner with us.
We truly believe that chemists will take a wise decision and won`t be trapped into vested interests of associations. That`s the reason, we are pretty optimistic about our business model. We have already expanded to 8 cities of India and will quickly expand to total 25 cities in 2015. We are seeing 50%+ month-over-month growth in the orders, which explains that Indian youth is embracing us with open arms.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the important points of view with us. It is really very nice blog. Medipta which describes to Online Medical Pharmacy