Over 70% of medical shops remained closed in A.P. in protest against e-pharmacies

Chemists in major cities in Andhra Pradesh, including Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Nellore and Tirupati, downed shutters on Wednesday (May 20, 2026) in a one-day bandh called by the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) against the growing sale of medicines through online pharmacies, which they allege allow people to buy drugs without a prescription.

According to information from the associations, more than 70% of the medical shops in the State remained closed on Wednesday.

In a release, the A.P. Chemists and Druggists Association claimed e-pharmacies and deep discounting have put livelihoods of 50 million people at risk. Large corporate entities are threatening the survival of small chemists in rural and semi-urban areas, which will destroy accessible medicine supply system, the alleged.

Moreover, e-pharmacies have impacted public health too, the association wrote in the release. “Through AI-based prescriptions, uncontrolled availability of antibiotics and habit forming drugs is giving rise to major threats such as antimicrobial resistance,” the association claimed.

In Vijayawada, members of the NTR District Chemists and Druggists Association took out a rally on Nakkala Road, highlighting the issues they face because of the growing dominance of online medicine sales.

Speaking at the rally, the association’s general secretary, D.V.R. Sai Kumar, pointed out that except for 27 medical shops that are attached to private hospitals, all other shops have downed their shutters in the district. The city alone has around 700 medical shops. “In the State, we received good responses from all districts. Almost all medical shops took part in the bandh, except for a few that had to remain open for emergency purposes,” Mr. Sai Kumar said.

On Tuesday (May 19, 2026), officials in the Drugs Control Administration, NTR district, said necessary precautionary arrangements had been made to ensure medicines remained available throughout the district.

In Visakhapatnam, instructions were issued to ensure that at least one medical shop remains open in every centre across the district, to avoid inconvenience to the public.

The administration said medical shops in hospitals and nursing homes would function as usual, and that there would be no shortage of medicines for patients. MedPlus Pharmacy informed the authorities that all its outlets in the district would remain open on the bandh day, while Apollo Pharmacy stated that at least 50% of its stores would function.