Madikeri: Condemning the loopholes in the supply chain of medicines through ‘E-Pharmacy’ by the central government, the medical shop owners have called for a nationwide protest on September 28, to which the Kodagu pharmacists too will be joining hands.

A K Jeevan, President of the Kodagu Pharmacists Association told media here on Wednesday, September 26, “On Friday, around 8.5 lakh pharmacists will join the nationwide protest in which 20,000 from the state and 120 from the Kodagu district will join and the medical shops will be closed.”

He clarified that however, the medical shops in the hospitals will be kept open.

Adding to the issue of E-Pharmacy, Jeevan said, “Implementation of the E-Pharmacy distribution system will not serve the people’s interest. The main responsibility of informing the public about the new system is completely on the medical shop owners. That is why this protest.”

Speaking on the occasion, Jeevan said that the government had issued a draft notification on the same, in which a lot of things are objectionable. The objections have been submitted to the government.

Deploring the goverment’s move, Jeevan said, “This new policy has facilitated the movement of counterfeit drugs and illegal sale of scheduled drugs to addicts. If this is not stopped it can jeoparadise the life of youth.”

He said, “E-Pharmacy does not have a check on the health condition of the patient, medicines prescribed and quality. This can also risk the consumers’ life.”

“Without knowing the supplier and the distributor, the people purchase it through this new system which is not safe”, he added.

Keeping in mind the importance of doctor’s prescription, Jeevan said, “Doctors have to upload the prescription in the portal on their own. There is no guarantee that the medicine delivered to the patients is the same as prescribed. The rule of delivering the medicine from the same hands is absent.”

Questioning the union government, Jeevan said, “The central government gets only 16 percent of the profit share. But the E-Pharmacy advertisements claim that the medicines are provided with 60 to 70 percent discount. Can the medicines provided at such rates be of good quality?”

D I Purshotham, President of the Madikeri Medical Shop Owners Association, K Vinod, Vice President of the Association, Prasad Gowda, Treasurer and B C Tilak, Joint Secretary were present.