A notice at Medical Store tells customers it is shut for the one-day nationwide chemists’ bandh, in Tirupati on Wednesday.
| Photo Credit: K.V. Poornachandra Kumar
Chemists in major Andhra Pradesh cities, including Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Tirupati, downed shutters on Wednesday (May 20, 2026) in a one-day bandh called by the All India Organisation of Chemists & Druggists (AIOCD) against the growing sale of medicines through online pharmacies, which they say allow people to buy drugs without a prescription.In Vijayawada, members of the NTR District Chemists & Druggists Association took out a rally on Nakkala Road, highlighting the issues they face because of the growing dominance of online medicine sales.Pharmacists protest the growing sale of medicines through online pharmacies, near Jagadamba Circle in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday, during a nationwide bandh called by the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists. Video: V. Raju pic.twitter.com/bbndT5aLuj— The Hindu - Andhra Pradesh (@THAndhra) May 20, 2026Speaking at the rally, the association’s general secretary, D.V.R. Sai Kumar, pointed out that e-pharmacies have impacted public health too, since these platforms allow people to buy medicines without a prescription.Habit-forming drugs, antibiotics and Medical Termination of Pregnancy kits are not sold in a chemist shop without a doctor’s prescription, but there are no restrictions while purchasing them from e-pharmacies, they said, adding that the bandh had been called in the larger public interest.Medical shops remain shut in Vijayawada on Wednesday during a one-day bandh against e-pharmacies, called by the Chemists and Druggists Association over unfair pricing and relaxed online drug-retail rules. Video: G.N. Rao pic.twitter.com/68ZBcPS0uW— The Hindu - Andhra Pradesh (@THAndhra) May 20, 2026The Krishna District Wholesale Drug Trade Association is also participating in the bandh. 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.
