The AIOCD, which has eight lakh member chemists across the country, opposed the Central government's move to regularise online sale of medicines, said its president J S Shinde.
"Over 90 per cent of the chemist shops across the country are shut today. However we allowed 10 per cent of them to remain open to avoid any difficulty to patients," said Shinde.
"The move towards regularising the sale of medicines through internet would increase the risk of adverse drug reaction and give an opening for the entry of low-quality, mis-branded and spurious products.
"This is estimated to hit eight lakh chemists and about 80 lakh workers and their families," he said.
Shinde said the AIOCD had earlier notified the government authorities, including ministries and departments concerned as well as the central drug control office, about e-pharmacies "not following the law in accordance with the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940" but haven't received any response from them yet.
"We have even submitted a memorandum on this issue to the Prime Minister's Office, (Health Minister) J P Nadda and chief ministers of all states. And a copy has been sent to all the members of Parliament, both in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha but no one has responded," he said.
Kulpreet Kaur, co-founder of Shop Pirate, a brand involved in sales of medicines online, said, "There is no harm in technology acting as an enabler in offering convenience to customers.