The proposal to have a list of over the counter (OTC) drugs has been under the consideration of the government for some time now. A committee appointed for the purpose has been working on it for some years. A list of OTC drugs is understood to have been now finalised by this committee. The main objective of having a list of OTC drugs is to widen the access of at least medicines which do not require a prescription or medical supervision, to larger sections of the society. Apart from expanding the access to modern medicine, such a move is also expected to bring down the medical costs to some extent. Despite having 5-8 lakh retail chemists in the country, even commonly used medicines are not available to a large section of the rural folk of India today. There is not going to be any major change to this situation in the coming years, as the expansion of retail chemists network is not taking place in the rural areas at desired level. By placing widely used painkillers, balms and cough syrups under OTC, they can be sold at the counters of grocery stores and other shops without a drug licence. Numbers of such trade channels are considerably larger and widespread than retail chemists shops. For pharmaceutical companies and some of the FMCG corporations, marketing of OTC medicines is thus going to be a huge business opportunity. Entry of Hindustan Lever into pharmaceutical marketing with its recent launch of a cough syrup and Ranbaxy''s declared plan to go for a major expansion of its OTC products are indications of this new business interests.
A key issue here is the safety in using OTC drugs. As these drugs will be taken without any medical advice, label comprehension with regard to disease symptoms, directions for use, warnings, etc is extremely important. Tendency to take higher doses of an OTC medicine and its use for longer periods are possible dangers associated with them. Generally labels on OTC products also do not indicate specified doses for children. All these call for a drastic change in the labelling practices of OTC medicines if they have to be sold outside medical shops. Firstly, labelling of OTC medicines has to be in local languages and all the instructions have to be in simple and easily understandable words. At present, very few pharma companies are printing labels in local languages. Some basic knowledge about medicines is also crucial amongst the traders who will be selling OTC products. It is extremely important, therefore, that the Drug Controller General of India has to lay down a separate set of rules or guidelines for OTC marketing. The companies which will be entering into manufacturing and marketing of OTC products also have the responsibility of following fair trade practices in this business.