The Pharmaceutical Wholesalers Association (PWA) have decided to stop drug supplies to the pharmaceutical retail chain major Medicine Shoppe's stores in Mumbai, allegedly for carrying an objectionable advertisement on the prevalence of spurious drug in India, maligning the integrity of the Indian drug industry and trade and the efficiency of the drugs control department.

The campaign, which started a few weeks ago in some of the private radio channels, conveys that while at least two out of the five medicines sold in India are spurious or substandard, Medicine Shoppe gives only quality drugs.

According to Dilip Mehtha, president of the Pharmaceutical Wholesalers Association, drug supplies will be stopped to the drug outlets of Medicine Shoppe, as a protest against this campaign. Mehta said he had conveyed the objections on this advertisement to Viraj Gandhi, CEO of Medicine Shoppe a few days ago and he had agreed to withdraw the advertisement. However, the company continued with the campaign. Therefore, as a protest, the traders have decided to stop drug supplies to the retail drug chain major.

When contacted, a top-level official of Medicine Shoppe said, "The content of our advertisement is not our views. It is based on a data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) detailing about the status of drug distribution in India. We have details of that document with us which was also carried by the media" said the official.

Interestingly, a New York based newswire report dated September 27, 2006 announcing the Acumen Fund's plan of Rs 50 million investments in Medicine Shoppe India to augment its rural India business plans also echoes the same view. The report said "Disha survey found that close to 12 per cent of rural income is spent on healthcare and nearly 60 per cent of this population takes loans at annual interest rates of 60 per cent to 120 per cent in order to pay for prolonged treatment or hospitalisation. At the same time, nearly 70 per cent of medicines sold in rural India are either of substandard quality or counterfeit".

Medicine Shoppe India's plans are to use the fund from the Acumen to launch its rural business plan, which the company intends to pilot with four stores and scale to 130 locations over five years. Its rural health centre model includes an in-house physician, pharmacy, vision centre and outsourced pathology. The health centres will offer free check-ups with the doctor and optometrist, while charging for medicines and glasses. Local doctors and technicians will be recruited to work in the new health centres, and pharmaceutical formularies will be regulated to assure health centre level profitability without compromising quality of treatment. In order to drive traffic to the health centres, locations will coincide with major traffic centres. Medicine Shoppe also intends to partner with rural Information and Communications Technology (ICT) operators to publicise Medicine Shoppe services and products and to educate rural populations on particular health concerns, according to sources.

Medicine Shoppe India, which started operations in February 1999 with about 100 shops operational in Mumbai, Navy Mumbai, and in other cities in Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal, Goa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi. It is already India's largest community pharmacy retail chain and has over 37 shops alone in Mumbai. The company is aiming to open at least 700 franchise shops by 2010.