Andhra Pradesh stands out as the first state in the country to introduce air conditioning as a precondition for issuing trade licenses to open new retail chemists shops. The Drug Control Administration of AP stopped issuing trade licenses without having a fully air conditioned space from August as part of its goal of achieving good trade practices in pharmaceutical trade in the state.

The state DCA issued 80 new trade licenses with the stipulation for fully air conditioned facilities since August. Out of these, as many as 50 are in Hyderabad-Secunderabad region. The Administration is persuading medical shops which have been licensed earlier to upgrade the stores with air conditioning.

According to Venkata Reddy, director, DCA, a large number of existing medical shops in the state will have either air conditioning or air coolers installed in their premises by March 2004. The shop owners who are not able to install air conditioning will be asked to reduce their stocks to the minimum during summer months.

The objective of insisting on air conditioning in the trade premises is to ensure right storage conditions for drugs and pharmaceuticals. All prescription and OTC drug preparations are expected to be kept under a minimum temperature of 25 degree centigrade to retain the potency.

Reddy said that Administration is organizing district level workshops across the state to educate the owners of medical shops to bring in good trade practices in their premises. Most of the pharmacists in the state are already wearing white aprons and shops are displaying green cross.

The state DCA has issued a total of 22,780 trade licenses and 1530 manufacturing licenses. Updating of this data as per the cancellation and non renewal is being regularly done now.