In a landmark judgement, the Kerala High Court has made it mandatory that all the pharmacies attached to private hospitals in the state should obtain drug licence from the state drugs control department. In fact, the court was reiterating its earlier stand on the same issue.

The Associations of Medical Practitioners were arguing that since they were registered medical practitioners, they were entitled the right to dispense the drugs. For the pharmacies, the drug license from the respective agency is a must, according to Drugs & Cosmetics Act.

The court's verdict in this regard was delivered in the last week of March, and following it the private hospital pharmacies in the state, which comes around 5000, will either have to get licences from the government or be closed down.

The verdict of the court is for a two-decade's old government directive which wanted all the private hospitals in the state to obtain drug licences for their pharmacies working with them. Against this directive, twenty years ago, the state branch of IDMA and another organization, Qualified Medical Practitioners Association (QMPA) had approached the High Court. The court then had favoured the directive of the Government. Further the doctors associations filed a suit in the Supreme Court, but the apex court had asked the High court to hear the case once again for an amicable solution.

Later the State Pharmacy Council has also joined along with the drugs control department to fight against the Medical Practitioners' move to implement the section 42 of the D&C Act. At last, bringing to an end to the year long arguments, the division bench of Justice K Balakrishnan Nair and Justice P N Ravindran has ruled that all the pharmacies attached to private hospitals in the state must have drug licences from the drugs department from the government.

The doctors were arguing that since they are registered medical practitioners they have the provision to dispense the drugs. On the basis of this, all the pharmacies attached to the private hospitals have been working without licenses. But sources in the drugs control department said that to run a pharmacy, according to Drugs & Cosmetics Act, every owner should get the drug licence.

For getting licence, the hospitals have to appoint registered pharmacists in their pharmacies. This pharmacist only has the right to give medicines as per the doctors' prescription. In the prescription, the quantity of the medicine should also be mentioned. These criteria have not been followed by pharmacies at private hospitals till date, said K C Ajith Kumar, president of State Pharmacy Council. He said the implementation of pharmacy licence would ensure the quality of the drugs besides giving jobs to unemployed pharmacists.