In order to protect the interests of the retailers and discourage the practice of selling of medicines by physicians and stockists directly to the customers or patients, retail chemists based in the city met with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials recently to address the problem on a priority basis.

Presence of pharmacists and schedule H1 compliance were the other other highlights of the agenda discussed during the meet. Issues related to streamlining the online application for retail licences was discussed as most of the chemists in the city found difficulties in navigating through the website thus making the online process for getting licences and renewals time consuming and infeasible.

According to a pharmacist, "Amongst other relevant issues, it was also mandated in the meet that every chemist should log on to the FDA website and check if all his/her drug retail shop parameters have been properly filled in. Any mistakes or omissions should be immediately reported to the concerned authority."

Aggrieved over the growing nexus between physicians and pharma companies, chemists based in Mumbai and Pune have approached the state government and FDA in the past as well. The chemist associations have found that Phrama MNCs are selling medicines to the patients at heavily discounted prices. This unethical practice of the pharma companies is causing big losses to the chemists and endangering patient safety.

Based on the findings by the city based chemists over the past several months, it has already been reported to the State FDA Minister Satej Bunty Patil and FDA Commissioner Mahesh Zagade that companies have allegedly supplied medicines of diabetes and cardiac disorders directly to the patients at heavy discounted rates of more than 10 per cent.

City based chemists have carried five such operations in Mumbai and Pune to detect such malpractices and found that pharma companies have colluded with physicians to supply medicines having MRP of Rs.500 to consumers. Argues a chemist,"We are the most vulnerable targets when it comes to implementing regulations like Schedule H1 and dispensing prescription drugs."