The Chennai Chemists and Druggists Association (CCDA), in a special meeting of its life members, patrons and executive committee members, has expelled its tainted president Meenakshi Sundaram following his involvement in the recent expired drug scam.

Some other members who were acting as his confidantes in the illicit drug trade were also shown the door for their misconduct. The former president was already arrested by the police and jailed for his alleged dealing in expired drugs.

The CCDA, which has a membership of more than 4000, has a new president, N Anandan, proprietor of Srivijaya Medicals and B Rajendran of Shanthy Medicals as the secretary. R Rajaram of Rajam Drug House is the new treasurer.

The special meeting, which was attended by over 700 members, has unanimously passed a resolution to work unitedly to regain the lost dignity of the association and also to avoid panic among the people in the society with regard to drug use.

"Meenakshi Sundaram was the president of the CCDA for the last two years and he brought down the image of the association which affected the goodwill of the business. We have to regain it and establish confidence among the people. So we wanted to reorganize the leadership. We are going to meet the Director of drugs control to explain everything," the new president told Pharmabiz.

The association has invited the Registrar of the Tamil Nadu Pharmacy Council, Dr T Ilango to the meeting who advised them to make a proposal to the government asking it to appoint qualified pharmacists in the whole sale depots also. Currently the pharmacist is working only in the retail pharmacies. He said the government can propose for an amendment to Drugs & Cosmetics Act to establish a special rule for engaging pharmacists in wholesale depots. All the members in the association have agreed to the point made by Ilango, said Anandan. Ilango has given some guidelines on how to function properly while in the pharmacy and the ways to find out the spurious and expired drugs.

While speaking to Pharmabiz, the registrar said the Pharmacy Council would be issuing identity cards to registered pharmacists working in the retail pharmacies and they have to display their cards when they are at work. Another proposal of the council is, he said, that the pharmacist should wear a white coat while in the pharmacy shop. According to him, the presence of a qualified pharmacist in the stockist's shop is necessary even though he is not interacting with the public. The pharmacist can implement the quality control measures better than the people in the depot.

Currently the eligibility for applying for a licence for stockist or wholesaler is a pass in plus 2 and five years experience in selling drugs.