The All India Chemists and Distributors Federation (AICDF) has urged Union minister of state for chemicals and fertilisers, Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, not to go ahead with his reported decision to bring in a proposal banning pharmacies from sale of food products, dietary and nutritional supplements.

Following the Union government’s decision to ban the baby food product, Maggi, the minister, who is in charge of the Department of Pharmaceuticals, has stated that he is thinking of bringing in a proposal to ban the sale of these products at pharmacies.

Reacting to his statement, AICDF has written to the minister that the association will resort to a nationwide protest if the government disallows the licensed pharmacies to sell baby food and other health products. The pharma traders’ association has expressed strong objection against the reported statement of the minister.

According to reports, the government has banned the sale of Maggi on the advice of FSSAI which found the product as unsafe and hazardous for human consumption. In the tests conducted, the health regulator has found that the presence of lead and monosodium glutamate in Maggi is beyond permissible limit.

Elaborating on the differences in products, AICDF in its letter says that like life-saving drugs, food products also require special care and preservation. Unlike other business, pharmaceutical and neutraceutical businesses need special training and education in order to concentrate more on perfection of dealings. Till today, there has been no report of allegation or complaint against any pharmaceutical dealer for misleading food or dietary or nutritional products. Therefore, banning pharmacies from selling nutritional  products is an attack on the pharma trade.

Speaking to Pharmabiz from Kolkata, AICDF general secretary Joydeep Sarkar said the dietary or nutritional products are made up of ingredients that generally find in vitamin formulations. He said because of certain government notifications with regard to schedule of drugs, the chemists shops are unable to keep sufficient quantity of various life-saving drugs in the shelves, which indirectly encourage monopolistic and restrictive trade practices. Most of the neutraceutical products are manufactured by medicine manufacturers, he commented.

Further, he informed that several pharmaceutical companies, by skipping the conventional system of trade practice, are selling life- saving drugs directly to hospitals and other agencies. Private practitioners are doing irrational purchase of drugs in bulks. The government must look into it and take action. He wanted the government not to take any such decision of prohibiting pharma traders from serving the ailing community with varieties of healthcare products.