To overcome the hardships in regulating the thousands of pharmacy outlets in Maharashtra, the State Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has started posting the drug inspectors (DIs) according to the geographical area of the state. Till now, the pharmacy outlets were distributed alphabetically among the drug inspectors to make periodic inspections of the pharmacy outlets to ensure that these outlets are run as per Drugs and Cosmetics Act.

The main objective of choosing this method of posting of DIs is to further streamline the process of inspection of all pharmacy outlets across the state to stop any illegal activities being committed by them.

ST Patil, joint commissioner of FDA-Thane (Konkan) Division, informed that now the FDA has placed one drug inspector in one particular area. So if any kind of illegal activity, like selling medicines without any prescription or without the presence of pharmacists at the shop, comes under the notice of the senior officials, the concerned DI posted in the area will be held responsible for such wrong acts. “Under such circumstances strict action will be taken against the DI placed in the area by suspending him/her from the post,” Patil said.

“Previously all the pharmacy outlets were distributed alphabetically among the drug inspectors but as we found that out of 6622 retail stores in Konkan division, 1280 stores were found without pharmacists while dispensing medicines to the patients. So to bring a major change in this ongoing inspection activity, FDA has started posting the DIs area wise,” Patil further said.

FDA commissioner Mahesh Zagade said that this is for the first time it has done in any state for all the inspectors including food inspectors. He further added, “Administrative control is the important thing for controlling and to churn out the wrong things done by any pharmacists at the shop.”

Zagade stressed that under Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, drug inspectors have to keep a check on each and every pharmacy outlet across the state because if these outlets are run by unqualified persons it will have serious consequences on the health of the patients as such unqualified pharmacists might give wrong drugs to the patients.

Currently State FDA has 135 drug inspectors working in the state out of which 24 has been placed in the Thane (Konkan) divison and 12 have been appointed for overall Pune division comprising Pune, Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur districts, three each in Ahmednagar, Nashik, Nagpur, Amravati, Aurangabad, Ratnagiri, etc.. but still the posts of drug inspectors are vacant in Vidarbha and Marathwada regions. State FDA has also sanctioned 165 posts in the state to strengthen the team of drug inspectors.