The All India Chemists and Distributors Federation (AICDF) has sought the central government to allow the competent licensed retail chemists to supply medicines without a qualified pharmacist in the outlet, in lines with the criteria followed for issuing license to wholesale drug distributors. The Federation will soon submit a memorandum to the Union ministries of chemicals and health in this regard.

Currently, the presence of a qualified pharmacist is mandatory under the law for selling medicines through retail outlets, while the number of retail pharmacists in the field is less that the total number of chemists in the country, according to the federation sources. "Out of more than 650000 chemists in the country only four lakh are run by qualified pharmacists and the shortage of pharmacists is acute in the eastern and northern states compared to the southern and western states," said an AICDF source.

The memorandum will suggest that the government should allow the chemists to continue selling the packed finished products through their outlets, unless it is not dispensing of medicine which should be only executed by a qualified pharmacist. "If the government is going to implement the pharmacy rule strictly, more than two lakh chemists would be compelled to shut down their shops and this will lead to severe shortage of drug supply in rural areas," said an AICDF source.

A person with a minimum four years of experience in drug distribution is considered as a competent person and is eligible to attain a wholesales drug distribution license. The federation is planning to request the government to extend the criteria to retail outlets also, where the chemist can sell the finished products in packets.

The sources points out that the wholesalers are freely allowed to sell the same finished products without any qualification criteria. "While the wholesalers, who are also selling finished products to various institutions and retailers are exempted from any such rules, the government should also exempt the chemists who are only dispersing finished products though retail outlets," the AICDF source averred.

The federation, which has decided to submit a memorandum to the concerned ministries on the issue, will call for a national medicine traders' meeting in Mumbai or Delhi within 10 days to finalise the written proposal. The federation's move comes as the part of recent actions from various state drug control offices against chemists' shops working without presence of qualified pharmacists.

The sources also informed that the federation has formed its state units in Jharkhand, Bihar, Assam and Bangal in the last week and is planning to establish its presence in more eastern states like Tripura and Manipur soon.