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A 34-year-old IT worker residing successful Hyderabad’s Madhapur country uploads an aged medicine connected a medicine transportation app precocious astatine nighttime and receives antibiotics and BP tablets astatine astir 30% discount wrong minutes. A fewer kilometres away, a neighbourhood chemist successful Panjagutta who has tally his pharmacy for implicit 3 decades says helium cannot spend to connection adjacent a fraction of those prices. That increasing clash betwixt instant medicine transportation platforms and accepted pharmacies has present erupted into a nationwide telephone for a shutdown, with thousands of pharmacies crossed Telangana acceptable to unopen connected Wednesday, (May 20, 2026).
The shutdown telephone was fixed by the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD), raising concerns implicit unfair practices by online pharmacies and firm medicine retail chains. In Telangana alone, astir 45,000 pharmacies are expected to enactment successful the shutdown, with astir 20,000 of them located successful Hyderabad, according to T. Krishna Kumar, treasurer of the Telangana Chemists and Druggists Association (TCDA).
At the centre of the protestation is the accelerated emergence of e-pharmacies and quick-commerce medicine transportation services, which pharmacists allege are operating with anemic medicine checks, heavy discounting practices and inadequate regulatory oversight.
The relation has raised objections to G.S.R. 817(E), a draught notification issued by the Union authorities successful 2018 proposing rules for the merchantability of medicines done e-pharmacies. “We besides request the withdrawal of G.S.R. 220(E), a impermanent notification introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic that allowed medicines to beryllium delivered to consumers nether relaxed conditions to guarantee continuity of entree during lockdowns,” said Mr. Kumar.
In Hyderabad, medicine transportation apps became profoundly integrated into municipality healthcare habits aft the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of app-based services. Consumers present routinely comparison medicine prices betwixt neighbourhood pharmacies and online platforms earlier placing orders.
For galore chemists, however, the accelerated displacement towards online transportation has triggered increasing fiscal anxiety. “For 30 to 40 years we person been successful this line, and we ourselves bash not get specified margins. If idiosyncratic is offering medicines astatine specified immense discounts, people radical volition question however that is possible,” said Neelesh Kanodia, a Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical distributor who runs Yash Agencies successful Ameerpet.
Apart from the economical concerns, chemists are besides framing the contented arsenic 1 of diligent information and regulatory accountability. Under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, carnal pharmacies are required to relation nether licensing norms, pharmacist supervision and periodic inspections. Pharmacists reason that integer medicine transportation systems are not subjected to the aforesaid level of scrutiny successful practice.
“I tally a tiny pharmacy successful Boduppal which caters to the needs of radical residing successful the area. Three years ago, I realised determination was nary pharmacy adjacent and I saw some a concern accidental and the request for entree to medicines. But with each year, the concern is getting much hard arsenic customers are decreasing,” said Venkat, who runs Aryansh Medical Stores.
“I inquire astir and galore radical archer maine that medicines are present being delivered successful 10 minutes similar groceries, often with discounts that tiny pharmacies simply cannot match,” helium added.
