Federation of Chemists & Druggists of Karnataka has called for the need to ensure that only qualified pharmacists are present at the pharmacy outlets in the country.

There needs to be a stringent regulation in place to employ qualified pharmacists for sale and dispensing of drugs, stated Ashokswamy Heroor, vice president, Federation of Chemists & Druggists of Karnataka.

The Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Rules were framed over seven decades ago and there has been a quantum jump in the field of pharmaceuticals. In the mid 40s, the country did not have any formal diploma, degree and post graduate courses in pharmacy. But the present situation has seen a profusion of pharmacy colleges and an increasing number of pharmacy graduates looking at post graduation and thereafter doctorate education. In such a situation, the trained and qualified pharmacists are looking to are keen create a professional environment and it could also be the first step to prevent sale of the wrong medicines, he added.

Quoting statistics from the Karnataka Pharmacy Council on pharmacists, he said there are 44,803 qualified personnel in this industry in the state, of which over 10,000 were unregistered. The state is home to around 18,000 pharmacies which operate after seeking licenses. In spite of this, there are more than 38,000 pharmacists who are unemployed. Therefore there is a clear indication that there is a huge potential to issue licenses for starting pharmacies, stated Heroor.

According to experts, since pharmacies sell scheduled drugs it is mandated that there should be a qualified pharmacists at the counters. In the case of wholesale outlets currently only those with persons with SSLC pass and any degree holder can man the counters. The former candidates should have four years experience in drug sales and the latter requires a similar of at least one year.

The Federation is also seeking an amendment of the Drugs & Cosmetics Act 1940 and Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 which according to Heroor could be more relevant to the current situation.

According to the present norms, pharmacy wholesalers need not be qualified pharmacists and the government now needs to amend this law and issue licenses even medicine to distributors only if they are qualified, he pointed out.

Therefore there is need to amend the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Rules to bring in this clause of qualified pharmacists to be employed in whole sale distribution. If the number of pharmacy licenses are increased, it would also reduce the growing unemployment in this space, stated Heroor.