Gujarat Food and Drug Control Authority (FDCA) has issued stern warning to all the stakeholders against malpractices with severe punishment. This comes in the wake of huge crack down by the drug regulator in the state wherein in the last couple of months they had conducted surprise inspection in around 14934 retail outlets across the state.

During the inspection it was found that many retail chemists were flouting the provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act (D&C Act), which requires compulsory presence of pharmacists in retail outlet at all times. Dr Hemant Koshia, commissioner of Gujarat FDCA, informed that as many as 2782 chemist shops were found blatantly violating the law by dispensing medicines to the patients without the presence of full time pharmacists.

FDCA authorities have already issued show cause notices to the transgressors and are awaiting their reply to proceed further as per their response. Based on their ongoing investigations and severity of the case, it is understood that the FDCA has suspended the licences of almost 656 retail outlets across the state for a period of one to 15 days.

Dr Koshia informed that as a stringent measure against serious defaulters, their office has permanently cancelled the licence of 224 retails pharmacy outlets in Gujarat. “No leniency will be shown towards the law breakers especially since it puts in danger the life and security of the patients at huge risk. The D&C Act requires full time presence of a pharmacist in retail outlets. We are going to ensure that such incidence do not reoccur again and have already expressed our concern and stern direction to the chemists and druggist associations across the state to ensure that all their members follow the rules and regulations as required,” he adds.

It is understood that in most of the cases, it was found that there was no presence of pharmacists at all, whereas their license was aptly used to show proxy presence. With a view to ensure check on such incidence in future, the Gujarat FDCA further referred the cases of the erring pharmacists to the state Pharmacy Council of India (PCI). It is understood that the drug regulatory body has given strong recommendations to cancel the licences of such pharmacists so it will be taken as a lesson for others.

Dr Koshia further informs, “It is highly unacceptable how the pharmacists have been found to be leasing their certificates to these retail outlets while they were working somewhere in the corporate. This is not only creating an unhealthy environment for patients but also leading to huge under utilisation of the talent pool within the pharmacy profession, which needs to be checked. Since we do not have any jurisdiction over the pharmacists we have referred the cases to state PCI and are sure that they would take corrective measure by canceling their licenses permanently.”