Chennai-based multi-state co-operative society Indian Medical Practitioners Co-operative Pharmacy and Stores Ltd (IMPCOPS), has closed down its three drug sale depots in Dharmapuri, Karoor and Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu state, because the Society is unable to afford to run these depots in losses.

The declared opening of a sales depot in Kozhikodu in Kerala state is unlikely to take off soon as the present condition in Tamil Nadu after the natural disaster is not appropriate for investing in new venture, said Dr. Pon Singh, secretary of the Society.

“Impcops is currently passing through a ‘no loss, no gain’ situation, in a break-even point. Any additional expenditure will be unaffordable to the company as of now. So, we will think of the sales depot in Kozhikodu a little later”, he added.

Dr. Pon Singh further pointed out that if a new depot has to be opened, considerable number of members of the Society should be there in the local area to purchase the drugs. In Malabar area of Kerala, there are only 42 members of Impcops and very few of them are likely to buy medicines from the depot. The graduates in Siddha, Ayurveda and Unani systems are the members of the Society and mostly the drugs supplied by Impcops are from Siddha system.

Regarding closure of three sale depots in Tamil Nadu, he said, for the last two years all the three depots were making a loss of Rs. 35,000 per month to the company by way of salary to employees and room rent. No much sale was there in any of these units; hence the director board has decided to discontinue the operations there.

With the closure of three sales depots, the number of Impcops depots has come down to 22. Out of this, one is in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, one in Bangalore in Karnataka, one in Warangal in Telengana and two in Andhra Pradesh, one each in Vishakhapatnam and Vijayawada. The Society also owns a manufacturing unit for ayurvedic medicines near Guntur in AP.

The director board of Impcops had earlier considered the request of the All Kerala Siddha Doctors’ Forum (AKSDF) and Kerala Unani Doctors Association (KUDA) to start one sales depot in the northern part of the state where large number of Siddha and Unani practitioners are practicing, so immense demand is there for Siddha and Unani drugs. Their demands for medical requirements are now met by the state government owned Oushadhi, and if a depot of Impcops is opened there it will benefit the whole people of the entire Malabar area.

Dr. Arun Baby, president of AKSDF and a member of the director board of Impcops, who took much pains to get approval from the Society for starting one sales depot in the northern Kerala, said his association has chalked out a plan to attract more graduates in Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani into Impcops as members in order to get more sales when the depot is opened in Kozhikodu. All over Kerala, about one thousand ayurveda physicians are now members of Impcops. Considering the request of AKSDF, the government of Kerala started one Siddha wing in all the district ayurveda hospitals and appointed physicians on contract basis.