More than eight lakh chemists across the country went on a day-long strike on Wednesday to protest against the sale of drugs online. The All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists, which called for the strike, claims the sale of medicines from e-pharmacies is illegal and should be banned.

More than 12,000 chemists in Delhi and 55,000 from Maharashtra were part of the protest, said AIOCD president JS Shinde. He said online sales could lead to the indiscriminate use of dangerous drugs, and also make it easy to peddle low quality, unbranded and spurious medicines. India does not have specific laws to monitor online pharmacies, though several of them have opened up in the last few years to tap a market estimated at Rs 65,000 crore.