Pharmaceutical Society of Kerala (PSK), a conglomeration of registered pharmacists and working as an affiliate of Kerala State Pharmacy Council, has launched a chain of well-equipped pharmacy shops in the state, with the latest in the string at Varkala in Thiruvananthapuram.

So far the PSK has opened up 13 such pharmacy outlets, with modern facilities, covering five districts of the state and the project is on, said K C Ajith Kumar, secretary of the Society.

Ajith Kumar, who is also the president of the Kerala State Pharmacy Council, said all the medical shops under PSK are maintaining the norms of Good Pharmacy Practices, the drugs are kept in atmosphere controlled areas and are dispensed by qualified pharmacists. All the drugs for the shops are currently procured from the open market, but in future it will have tie-ups with manufacturing companies for direct purchase.

"We are taking great pains to store the drugs in an ideal environment as hot and humid temperature can spoil the medicines. As per D&C Act, our pharmacies keep most of the drugs under 25 degree Celsius and perishable medicines are kept in cold storage in order to preserve and prolong the potency of medicines," Ajith Kumar said.

He alleged that the Neethi Medical Stores and the Maveli Medical stores run by Kerala Government are not properly maintaining the good storage conditions. "They do not have the necessary facilities to maintain the climate controlled environment to keep medicines in the proper way. Their retail outlets are violating the Drugs & Cosmetics Act. If government can provide 24-hour electricity to our pharmacy shops on discounted rate, we are ready to open quality pharmacy stores to the common man all over the state," Ajith Kumar told Pharmabiz.

According to the by-laws of PSK, a group of registered pharmacists, not less than 10, can form a unit of PSK to start a medical shop. After affiliation, PSK will give financial aid up to a tune of Rs 10 lakh to each unit depending on the potential of business in the particular area. Each store is controlled by a Manager appointed by the Unit and the stores have to sell all the medicines at a reasonable rate. According to him, the only problem PSK faces is the shortage of qualified pharmacists to run the business.

He said the Pharmaceutical Society has three types of memberships such as Life Membership for Rs 10,000, Institutional membership, Associate membership and ordinary membership. The total number of members at present with the society is 1500. The total asset of PSK, including all the properties, comes to around Rs 4 crore.

Next project of the Pharmaceutical Society is to speed up the plan of starting a Pharmacy College for D Pharm Course in Kozhikodu. Even though the college begins with Diploma course, it will have all the facilities of a Degree College. The Society's plan is to begin the first batch next year. According to Ajith Kumar, north Kerala, especially, Kannur district faces severe shortage of pharmacists and hopes that his attempt will help find a solution in two years. He said currently the state has 40,000 registered pharmacists.