Coming close on the heels of Southern traders' roll back from Pfizer boycott decision, the drug traders in Kerala have started boycotting the products of three major Pharmaceutical companies since last week for alleged direct supply of drugs to the State Government's retail chain arm State Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd., (Supplyco).

According to the information available with Pharmabiz, the targeted companies by Kerala drug traders are Alembic, Novartis India and Themis Healthcare and the boycott started since August 27.

The All Kerala Chemists and Druggists Association (AKCDA), the only pharmaceutical drug traders agency in the state, alleged the three companies directly supplied drugs to Supplyco to the tune of not less than Rs 50 lakhs, through a Kochi-based 'agent or an unrecognized stockist' and with the 'involvement' of some of the respective company officials in the region. This was gross violation of the trade pact existing between AIOCD and pharmaceutical companies since 1999 regarding the trade of medicines, they allege.

The recent deal was done despite the presence of 100 each odd stockists and distributors for these companies in the state. This was brought to the notice of AKCDA last week, and the embargo was immediately implemented on the three companies, said top-level AKCDA sources.

The companies are yet to discuss the issue with AKCDA despite the embargo for almost a week, it is learnt.

The Rs 450 crore Supplyco, the largest retail chain dealing in essential commodities in Kerala with its 842 Maveli stores, 20 mobile Maveli stores, 106 Labham markets, 10 super Maveli stores, and a few petrol bunks and LPG outlets, also runs 38 Maveli medical stores in the state at important towns and taluks. The Maveli medical shops offer discounts upto 30 percent from a minimum 10 percent for medicines, and according to informed Supplyco sources, the plans are to increase the number of medical shops to at least 150 in near future.