Even as the all India Organisation of Chemists & Druggists (AIOCD) is going ahead with their demand for amendment of Rule 65(15) (C ) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, the Federation of Indian Pharmacists Organizations (FIPO) has condemned the demand of the traders by arguing that the amendment will help only to do away with the  compulsory requirement of pharmacist in each retail medicine shop.

Opposing and criticizing the move of the drug traders, Dr R S Thakur, president of FIPO, in a letter sent to the Union health ministry wanted that licence to sale of drugs should be granted only to the registered pharmacists. He said considering the larger interest of the public, a new legislation should be brought in this regard and it should specify that only a registered pharmacist be given licence for sale of medicines, and no one else. If the grant of licence is restricted to registered pharmacists, the menace of spurious or adulterated or misbranded drugs can be effectively controlled, both legally as well as professionally, he argued.

In the country wide strike conducted by AIOCD on last Friday (May 10) protesting against the new drug pricing policy of the government, the traders, as one of their major demands, wanted the government to permit the partner or the proprietor of a drug store as a qualified person to dispense the medicines taking into account the shortage of qualified pharmacists. As a supportive measure, they said the decision would help resolve the long pending issue of shortage of pharmacists in the country. Whereas, countering their argument, FIPO in their letter said in India there are over three lakhs unemployed and under employed registered pharmacists seeking jobs.

The president of FIPO exhorted to all the registered pharmacists to take up the issue with the ministry of health & family welfare, government of India for requisite amendment in the Drugs & Cosmetics Rules, 1945.

Raising another point that the move of AIOCD is aimed at clandestine business in medicines, Dr Takur said the traders’ demand is anti-people, and such a system had prevailed in the British India before the Drugs Act was enacted in 1940. In August, 1930, in response to public opinion against defective drugs and in pursuance of the Resolution of 1927, the Government of India appointed a committee namely the Drugs Enquiry Committee with Col. R. N. Chopra as its chairman. This Committee, recommended among others, to make central legislation to control drugs. As a result, the government passed the Drugs Act in 1940 to regulate the import, manufacture, distribution and sale of drugs.  

The compulsory requirement of registered pharmacist for sale and distribution of medicines is globally recognized and statutorily warranted across the world. In USA only pharmacists supply scheduled medicines to the public, and pharmacists cannot form business partnerships with physicians. Similar situation prevails throughout Europe, Australia, Canada and other Asian countries in respect of allopathic medicines, the letter of FIPO said.