The Chief Judicial Magistrate Court of Nadapuram in Kozhikode district of Kerala has directed owner cum doctor of a hospital at Kuttiyadi and the salesman of its hospital pharmacy to pay a fine of Rs.1000 each for not abiding by the provisions of Drugs & Cosmetics Act. The order was issued on a complaint filed by Kerala State Pharmacy Council.
The owner was also ordered to pay an additional amount of Rs.1000 in the name of the hospital as an institutional punishment.
This is the first such case and punishment of its kind in the country, following surprise inspections conducted by the Council-appointed pharmacy inspectors in December last year. The verdict of the Nadapuram CJM issued on Tuesday, March 8. The hospital authorities had to pay a total fine of Rs.3000 towards penalty.
The Council has filed 26 such cases against 16 pharmacies including community and hospital pharmacies coming under four northern districts. Inspections were carried out in six pharmacy stores in Palakkadu district, two in Kozhikode, three in Thrissur and five in Malappuram. Certain pharmacies were found to have failed in complying with several provisions of the Act and hence more cases had to be registered against such stores, A Ajith Kumar, president of the pharmacy council said.
The charge levelled against KMC Hospital at Kuttiyadi in Kozhikode, for which the judgement came on Tuesday, was that it did not properly maintain the pharmacy and the drugs were dispensed not by a qualified and registered pharmacist. It is a violation of section 42 of the Act. Ajith Kumar said the hospital had not acquired sales licence from the drugs control department for running the pharmacy.
He said the D&C Act provides powers to the Council to conduct inspections to check whether the dispensaries are being run in accordance with the rules. The pharmacy inspectors have forwarded the case of violation to the drug control department also, he told Pharmabiz.
In the telephonic conversation with Pharmabiz, the Kerala Pharmacy Council president said he formed a special squad of four pharmacy inspectors which inspected more than 150 pharmacy shops in the districts of Kozhikode, Malapuram, Palakkadu and Thrissur to check the sections 41 and 42 of the Act are followed. To their surprise, the inspectors found that a large number of pharmacy outlets, especially those attached with clinics and hospitals were not fully following the norms of D&C Act and rules. Ajith Kumar added that the inspection drive would extend to other districts also.
Apart from the president, pharmacy inspectors E V Rajendran, AK Girish, KR Abhilash and Shibu Robert were in the inspection team.