KATHMANDU: Protesting police raids on two big pharmaceutical companies of the Capital on Friday, chemists and druggists on Saturday warned that they would launch stern protests.

On Friday, a market monitoring had raided two drug depots of Lomus Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd and Deurali Janata Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd and sealed them for allegedly selling life-saving medicines at higher rates.

The team had also arrested Prabal Jung Pandey, executive director, and Prajwal Jung Pandey, director, of Lomus Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd, Nil Raj Acharya, general manager of Deurali Janata Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd, and Nigam Adhikari for further investigation.

Pandey duo are sons of Pradeep Jung Pandey, former President of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Issuing a statement today, the Nepal Chemists and Druggists Association President Mrigendra Mehar Shrestha protested the move claiming it was prejudiced and forceful abuse.

Claiming that druggists and pharmacists of the nation served members of the public even during the border blockade and subsequent shortage of medicines for months, the NCDA said the administration's move would cause decrease in confidence of commercial medicine producers and sellers.

The organisation urged the government to immediately release the detainees and solve the problem through talks.