With strong determination to weed out the fake pharmacists from the community pharmacy sector and to generate more employment opportunities for the registered qualified pharmacists, the Assam Pharmacy Council (APC) will take steps to implement the Pharmacy Practice Regulations (PPR) 2015 before the end of this year.

To begin with, the Council will appoint pharmacy inspectors in all the districts, for which, the government order is awaited, said Anil Kumar Sharma, president of the APC.

He said the PPR is a strong tool to weed out all the quacks from the retail pharmacy sector. The executive meeting of the APC, slated for December 19, will discuss the matter in detail. According to him, in Assam the number of registered pharmacists is only 7013, but more than 5000 fake pharmacists are working in the pharmacies. The Council, three years ago, took stern action against the bogus elements, but somehow, they are still in the field. APC is committed to weed out such fake chemists from selling drugs in order to maintain the health of the common people.

He said the process of election for the Council is also under process. Presently, the Council is working with full time employees under the supervision of the registrar who is a government employee. The registered pharmacists have been demanding the government to conduct the election and recently the Council received the order from the government to go ahead with the process. In order to implement the PPR, there should be an elected council forum, Anil Sharma opined.

For implementation of PPR and appointment of pharmacy inspectors, Anil Kumar Sharma held discussions with the Kerala Pharmacy Council which is the first state council in the country started measures to implement the regulations. Even before the introduction of the regulations by PCI, KSPC had appointed pharmacy inspectors in all the districts.

Sofiur Rehmankhan, president of the Assam Registered Pharmacists Association (ARPA) said the fake pharmacists are continuing in the retail pharma sector because of the apathy of the state drugs control department. In spite of several complaints to the drugs controller and also to the government, the regulatory agency is not initiating any action against these quacks and they are smoothly doing the business.

“ARPA approached the court against the presence of fake pharmacists and argued that the quacks’ operation is against the Drugs Act and Rules. But the drugs control department is issuing a licence for sale of drugs, ‘Restricted Pharmacy Licence’ (RP), to anyone applying for it. Most of the holders of RP are under-matriculates and it is against the provisions of the Drugs Act. Based on our petition, the Guwahati High Court in last year ordered the health department to identify and find out the fake pharmacists. Following that, the Assam Pharmacy Council deleted some names from their registry. But still, majority of the dispensers in the community pharmacies, especially in rural areas, are quacks. No qualified and registered pharmacist is working in the rural areas,” Sofiur told Pharmabiz.

He further said, the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) is fully aware of the situation in Assam, especially about the court case against the fake pharmacists filed by ARPA. But the central body is not responding to any issue neither to the government nor to the state pharmacy council.

Sofiur said, the Assam Registered Pharmacists Association will hold discussions and debates on PPR and also on the emerging issue of online-pharmacy in all the districts to educate the working pharmacists. For this, ARPA will associate with all the educational institutions and industry in the state.