The small scale drug units are upset over the system of charging a fee for new products by All India Organization of Chemists and Druggists. AIOCD has been charging a fee for every product sold through its member traders in the name of providing information to the public.

Informed sources said that earlier pharma companies were required to obtain a No Objection Certificate from AIOCD for getting a product into the market. For getting the NOC, the companies were to pay a minimum of Rs 1000 to the AIOCD.

This kind of charges for each product puts a company into a serious dilemma especially when it has to launch twenty to thirty products. That would mean payment of huge amount of money to the wholesalers and retailers. The government had tried in the past to stop such unfair trade practices by referring the matter to Monopolies & Restrictive Trade Practices Commission which had forced the trade to scrap the practice of NOC for the products.

But, the wholesalers and retailers once again started demanding money before launch of products from the manufacturers under the pretext of providing information about the drug to the public. The sources alleged that the wholesalers and retailers were stating that they were incurring a lot of expenditure as they had to provide information to the public.

The sources said that it was understandable if the money collected like this from the manufacturers were used for educating the public. But that is not what is happening and the AIOCD has no proper explanation about the utilisation of such collection.

What the trade is doing now is to collect this charge from the companies in the name of Public Information System instead of NOC but plundering continues unabated. It is unfair on their part to follow such practices. They have begun to dictate terms to the manufacturers and acting like mafia. This practice should be curbed forthwith or SSIs will be badly hit, the sources said.

After collecting this charge, AIOCD is just stating that as a donation for the bulletin and a receipt is issued. They have formed a strong group and are dictating terms to the drug units. They are able to do this as there is no unity among manufacturers due to the competition, said the source.

Sources from the pharma industry in Kerala said that, this issue was creating a lot of irritation amongst the manufacturers there. All Kerala Chemists and Druggists Association had gone a step further and had denied the distribution of medicines to the Consumer medical Stores.

The Kerala government has declared recently in the assembly that strong action would be taken against associations that act in an irresponsible manner.