3 min readAhmedabadUpdated: May 8, 2026 12:17 AM IST
More than 35,000 medical shops in Gujarat will remain closed on May 20 as part of the token protest against the online sale of medicines. This will be part of a national protest called by the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD), the apex body representing 12.5 lakh chemists and drug distributors across the country, against what it termed the “illegal business of online sale of medication”.
Speaking in Ahmedabad on Thursday, Jaswant Patel, president of the Federation of Gujarat State Chemist and Druggist Associations, said, “During the Covid pandemic, the Government of India had issued a gazette notification allowing online drug delivery to reduce infections through crowding at shops. Misusing that order, big businesses are using it to carry out their online sale of medicines. This notification was never cancelled in spite of multiple representations made to Union Health Ministers Mansukh Mandaviya and J P Nadda.”
Patel said, “Further, with the use of AI, fake prescriptions are being used to order drugs that can be abused, including alprazolam, diazepam, clonazepam and codeine-laced syrups. Abortion pills are being sold openly. We have ordered codeine syrup in the name of CM Bhupendra Patel and it has been delivered. We have ordered alprazolam in the name of President Droupadi Murmu and it has been delivered and we have placed all this on record in courts.”
On business loss, Jaswant Patel said, “At the corporate level, these online stores give massive discounts, causing an existential crisis for the small traders. How will the GDP of the country rise when the small and medium traders cannot survive in the market?” He added that the online stores had captured 7% of the market.
Referring to PM Modi’s appeal to the public for greater awareness on antimicrobial resistance during his Mann Ki Baat radio show in December 2025, Patel claimed that duplicate medicines are being sold in the market and that the GoI needs to do more to clamp down on this menace.
The federation chief said that they had filed a petition in the Gujarat HC against the sale of online medication in 2016 but there had been no orders in the case. He, however, pointed out that some stay orders had come from the Delhi HC over the issue.
