The Standing Committee of the Union Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, which reviewed the licensing conditions under the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, has made a highly questionable recommendation to the government. It has suggested that for making available essential medicines in rural and remote areas of the country, educated persons other than pharmacists can be employed by imparting short-term training to them. The committee is of the view that such persons can be employed to dispense drugs in PDS outlets or "Sarvapriya Scheme" shops so that there could be wider access of medicines to the common man. The committee's observation that essential medicines are not reaching several remote areas of the country is indeed true. There is no dispute on that. But, lack of access of essential medicines to a large part of the population of the country is not on account of the absence of adequate number of retail drug stores only. It is also because of poverty, illiteracy and non-availability of qualified doctors in rural areas. In fact, some household remedies are already being sold in general stores in semi urban and rural areas under the restricted licensing without registered pharmacists. A move to persuade Central Drug authorities to have a wider basket of medicines including certain antibiotics as OTC is also on by some vested interests.
Indian Pharmaceutical Association, the country's national body of pharmacists and Pharmacy Council of India have taken strong objection to the recommendation of the Standing Committee. According to IPA, the recommendation goes counter to present mandatory requirement of employing registered pharmacists for distribution and sale of drugs in India. The concern of IPA is based on two grounds. Firstly, it feels that dispensing of life saving drugs by persons with no qualification in pharmacy practices could lead to a rise in irrational use of drugs and self-medication with disastrous consequences for health professionals and regulatory officials to deal with. Relevant knowledge of medicine cannot be acquired by educated persons with a short-term training. Such practice does not exist anywhere in the developed and developing nations. Secondly, IPA fears that if this recommendation is accepted, several hundreds of registered pharmacists would become jobless and redundant. The main issue here is the high risk involved in drug delivery in case of such an amendment to D&C Rules. There should be no compromise in ensuring right delivery of drugs to the masses. And such a need is being increasingly recognized worldwide. It is to be noted in this context that international professional bodies like WHO and FIP have come out with a set of guidelines for Good Pharmacy Practices and Good Storage Practices to help countries to frame national standards in these two areas. Therefore, what is required is an upgradation of the pharmacies and the quality of services of registered pharmacists dispensing drugs.