Concerned over the rising incidence of mislabelling of certain drugs as Schedule H1, pharmacists across the country have urged the regulatory body to urgently look into this matter to clear the confusion among the stakeholders. It was observed by pharmacists that many pharma companies have been wrongly labeling drugs under Schedule H1 category even though they do not fall under the same, creating a lot of skepticism and extra work for the pharmacists.
Schedule H1 which was included in the Drugs & Cosmetics Act after amending the Act in 2013, came into effect from March 1, 2014 consists of a list of only 46 drugs. However, experts point out that there are more products in the market that are being sold under this category than necessary. This they feel needs to be investigated to find out the possibility of any swindling in this matter.
What makes the matter worse for the pharmacists is that under the law, the retailers who are doing manual billing are required to keep separate bill books or separate series of bill numbers, so that they can produce the records immediately when asked by the drug control officials. With such a long list of medicines it becomes tedious and cumbersome issue for many to keep a record of the drugs, especially when they are well aware that they do not fall under the category.
A highly placed source informs that since its implementation there have been a severe lapse in the way in which labeling is being done by the pharma companies leading to lot of issues for the pharmacists as well as consumers. According to the source, “We have noticed a lot of labeling mistakes in the packaging of drugs wherein in even the drugs or molecules that are not listed under the Schedule H or H1 category are labeled as Schedule H1. In fact some of the lotions that are over the counter products are also being labelled as Schedule H1 drugs making it problematic for the consumers. This is due to their inability in buying products without prescription as Schedule H1 requires a prescription by registered medical practitioner.”