Karnataka's pharmacists in the rural areas are up in arms following the recent recommendations of the parliamentary standing committee on petroleum and chemicals not to restrict the sale of drugs by unqualified pharmacists. They feel this could breed a dangerous culture of self-medication apart from rendering thousands of qualified pharmacists jobless.

"We have learnt that the Union Government is considering these recommendations seriously. While it is true that there is a serious dearth of qualified pharmacists in rural areas, the remedy is not to do away with pharmacists in the drug distribution chain," sources from the Indian Pharmaceutical Association, told Pharmabiz.com.

Raveendra, president, IPA, Bangalore branch said that such a decision would not only affect the society in general but also spell doom for the pharmacists community across the country.

According to him there are over 20,000 rural medical outlets in Karnataka doing a business of Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 2,000 a day. "The business of over ninety percent of these units will be adversely affected if the Centre implements the propose rule allowing unqualified people to dispense drugs, Raveendra said.

The parliamentary committee has also suggested changes in the licensing policy to ensure improvement in the availability of essential medicines to the general population of the country, particularly in rural and remote areas.

According to the parliamentary committee, "There is a growing trend of qualified pharmacists moving in urban areas and refusing to settle in rural areas. Some shops also tend to sell medicines under benami licences rented from qualified pharmacists. One of the best ways to arrest such trends is to do away with the need for qualified pharmacists in dispensing the drugs. Adequate safeguards against prescribing of wrong and non-essential drugs by the doctors may however be put in place by the competent authority."

The committee also feels that the sale and distribution of drugs should be entrusted with qualified persons after an intensive training.

"This solution defies logic as dispensing of medicines by unqualified persons will further aggravate the existing problem of self-medication and encourage clandestine manufacture and sale of spurious drugs with disastrous consequences for health professionals and regulators, informed Kalyani Divakar, secretary IPA Bangalore branch.

The national body of pharmacists engaged in various facets of the professional of pharmacy is deeply concerned about the recommendations. The recommendations will jeopardise and downgrade the already low level of pharmaceutical services available to people and weaken the already frail and depleted work force of the drug control administrators in the State and the Centre said Raveendra.

"There are about five lakh registered pharmacists in the country who are mainly employed in retail outlets and hospitals for storage, sale and distribution of medicines. About 50,000 get qualified as pharmacists from about 400 pharmacy colleges every year. This works to one pharmacist for a 2,000 population which compares favourably with the international norms," said Raveendra.

"Amending the law by removing the interface of pharmacists will certainly provide additional job opportunities to the non-pharmacy persons at the cost of the registered pharmacists, some of whom are already jobless," informed R Yogananda, vice president, IPA, Bangalore branch.

The government of India should clearly define the responsibility and the role of pharmacists while taking steps to improve the availability of medicines in the country particularly in rural areas, said Raveendra.

The main thrust should be to improve the unique technical competence of pharmacists to enable them to influence national health policy towards the improvement in the accessibility of medicines, said Kalyani Divakar.