Pharmaceutical Distributors Organisation (PDO) has raised serious objections to the manufacturers supplying medicines directly to the hospitals and to the burgeoning pharmacy chain stores.

The traders alleged, the burgeoning Chain Stores in the state, especially in Chennai, are posing threat to the trader community at large affecting the very existence of pharma retailers. Majority of small retailers are on the verge of closure of their shops with the emergence of certain big retail pharma chains.

Responding to the traders' remark, B Sethuraman, president of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Tamil Nadu (PMA-Tamil Nadu) said there is no such big dealing taking place between manufacturers and institutions. Certain hospitals in Tamil Nadu and Kerala are directly purchasing drugs from some companies, but no direct supply to medical shops, he said.

Medplus Healthcare and Lifetime Healthcare Ltd are the two major companies that run chain of pharmacy stores in Chennai. Lifetime health care runs its pharma outlets under the brand name, Life Ken'.

"These shops are giving ten percent discounts to customers, which affects the whole trade, especially those of retailers. Hence the survival of small retailers is now a question mark. The managements purchase the drugs in bulk and distributing to their branches in the form of corporate business. They are not even the members of PDO," said L Satheesh Kothari, president of the Organisation.

"We are going to express our protests against this practice of the manufacturers and ask them not to supply to any chain store or hospital or institution run by private individuals as with the expansion of several pharmacy chain stores, the wholesaler community will be out of the market", a trader who is close to a manufacturing company said.

The PDO, an affiliate of Tamil Nadu Pharmaceutical Distributors Association (TNPDA) is now thinking of approaching All India Chemists and Distributors Federation (AICDF), the national level organization for pharmaceutical traders, The Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) and the Pharmaceutical and Allied Manufacturers & Distributors Association Ltd (PAMDAL) to apprise them of the traders' positions, Satheesh Kothari told Pharmabiz.