Irked over the Maharashtra drug authorities' directive to the chemists in Mumbai to cut the strips of medicine as desired by the customers, the pharmacists in the country have asked the authorities to take up the matter with the drug manufacturers to ensures that the manufacturers are stopped from bringing into the market large strip sizes and large pack sizes as it forces the chemists to cut the strips.

The pharmacists have brought to the notice of the drug authorities that several pharma manufacturers without assigning any reasons have increased their strip size from the normal size of 6 or 10 to 15, 20 and even 30.

Giving just some examples, the pharmacists said that the manufacturers of the products like Restyl 0.25 & 0.5, Zinetac 150, Rantac 150, Supractiv, Tonact 10 & 20, Becosules, Naprosyn 250, Stemetil, Omez 20,Ocid 20,Becozyme C Forte, Supradyn, Glyciphage 500, Crocin, Alprax 0.25 & 0.5, Sysfol, Listril, Betaloc 25 &50, Clamp 625, Moxclav 625, Chymoral Forte Plus and Imdur 30 have recently increased their pack size from the normal size of 10 tablets to the size of 15, 20 and in some cases like Zinetac even to 30 tablets in a single pack.

Likewise, the products like Hematrine, Nutrisan, Folvite, Autrin, Stugeron 25mg, Stugeron 75mg and Raricap are available only with bigger pack size of 20, 25, 30 and even 40 which should be brought down to the pack size of 10 to avoid strip cutting as strip cutting is a loss to the chemists as well as to the nation and there are a lot of shortcomings and dangers for the customers when chemists cut strips, pharmacists have said.

Besides, for many brands, the individual tab/caps are so placed in the strip, that a strip cannot be cut easily, and if cut, it most of the time ends up exposing /intruding into one or more tab/cap. This leads to a lot of arguments between the retailer and the customer, and is a loss to the retailer as well as the customer. Mega 3, Gris OD, Antoxid, Antoxid HC, Sitcom, Harty cap and Triomega cap are some of the examples quoted by the pharmacists.

“Your intentions to protect the interest of the consumers seem to be good, however, there are a lot of shortcomings and dangers for the customer when chemists cut strips”, they said.