The All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) will be approaching the Union ministry of health and the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) to bring in some relaxations in rules for the benefit of pharmacy retailers in north India where qualified pharmacists are extremely in short supply affecting day-to-day operations of pharmacy trade.

In the last executive committee meeting of AIOCD, held at Indore, the members discussed the non availability of qualified pharmacists in states like Bihar, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Jammu and Kashmir, Chandigarh, Haryana, Punjab and in some parts of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. A large number of retail shops in these states have only part time pharmacists and in several cases, one qualified pharmacist has to work in more than one pharmacy outlet.

"With the state and central governments trying to strictly enforce the rules by not allowing pharmacy outlets to operate without qualified pharmacists, many outlets will face closure in the region. We will start discussion with the concerned ministries and PCI to find some solution for the problem," said J S Shinde, Hon general secretary, AIOCD. The organisation will discuss the issue in detail in its 16th general meeting, to be held at Agra on September 6 and 7, 2008.

Many of the retail shop owners in this region were in business from last 15 to 20 years and asking them to close down will affect the availability of drugs in the region, he added. The organisation will convey its willingness to train the pharmacy outlet owners in dissemination of drug information and customer relations. "We will request the government to provide a certificate to these shop owners to run the shop," he added.

The organisation will also seek the Home Ministry to bring in simplicity into the narcotic rules, which currently creates hurdles for the distributors to sell drugs with narcotic contents through pharmaceutical distribution channel. "The narcotics department has imposed several restrictions in distribution of narcotic drugs used as anaesthetics and in palliative care. Many a time, these drugs are considered as highly important life saving medicines and the rules and restrictions will affect the availability of these drugs in market," averred Shinde.

He explained that the demand of narcotics department to submit the product details and data in documents several times in a month is embarrassing to the distributors. Further, a recent circular asking the pharmaceutical traders to file the product data online has affected the supply of the narcotic drugs for treatment in the market. AIOCD has made representation to all the concerned ministries about this and will soon have talks with the officials.

AIOCD is expected to take up its demand for uniform operating procedure in Value Added Tax (VAT) system. The different rules and regulations relating to VAT in various states are affecting the free movement of pharmaceutical products from one state to another.