Chemists’ body writes to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, calls India e-pharmacy launch ‘illegal’

The All India Organization of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) on Friday wrote a letter to Amazon Inc’s chief executive officer Jeff Bezos, saying that the launch of online pharmacy business by the e-commerce behemoth’s India subsidiary in Bengaluru was illegal.

In the letter written to Bezos, with copies marked for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other government officials, the association of 850,000 Indian chemists cited various laws and regulations like the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Drugs and Cosmetic Rules, as well as a decision of the Delhi high court putting a stay on online pharmacies to say that the US-based company was in contravention to the rules.

AIOCD said that the government had only allowed sale of medicines online during the lockdown as it amounted to an emergency, and that home delivering medicines would be in contempt of the court’s decision.