In a massive drive aimed at checking the presence of pharmacists in retail chemists shops, Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) has till now scoured around 7000 plus chemists shops across Gujarat. Following the ongoing probe, the state drug regulatory body has already busted around 1400 chemists shops found to be flouting the rules and regulations of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act that requires presence of pharmacists in the chemist shops.

It is understood that from the detected 1400 cases, around 141 cases have been found to be of gross violation wherein the chemist shops did not have the presence of pharmacists at all at any given time at their premises, which is a grave contravention of law. Dr H G Koshia, Gujarat FDCA informed that to put a stop to such incidence and to ensure that strict action is taken against the wrong doers the Gujarat FDCA has alerted canceled the licenses of these chemists shops.

While, he added that, stern directive have been given to the assistant commissioners to pursue this matter on an urgent basis with the Gujarat Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) to tackle with the pharmacists found to be leasing their licenses to these chemist shops. “We found that in this select cases the chemist shops where operating without having a pharmacists at all, which is completely against the law. Not only where they putting the life of patients at risk they were also making a mockery of the law and order situation. Severe steps have been taken against the wrong doers to discourage them from doing the same in future and we hope that it will stand as a deterrent for others as well if they want to see themselves doing business in the state,” Dr Koshia warned.

He further stressed that in the other 600 cases, it was found that there was irregularity in the presence of pharmacists in the chemist shops, which is also against the law. To keep a tab on them and warn them against repeating the same in the future the Gujarat FDCA have suspended the licenses of these 600 chemists shops till further proceedings, while the rest have been left off with stern warnings.

Dr Koshia stressed that the state drug regulatory body is going to further strengthen their measure by more surprise drives and checks as they want to ensure that no chemist shop in the state flout the rules. He added, “We have been successfully able to check the multiple and illegal enrollment in the state through our XLN software. However, there have been incidence where absence of pharmacists have become a growing cause of concern for us, which we plan to solve soon enough through our dedicated drive, which we plan to carry on in the coming months too.”