Raising a genuine motto that ‘Pharmacies are for Pharmacists’, various registered pharmacists associations in Tamil Nadu are deliberating on coming under one umbrella by forming a Federation in order to demand that medicine sale should be carried out by registered pharmacists only.

A preliminary meeting of the association members will be held in Dindukkal in the first week of November. The office-bearers meeting was held at Kumbhakonam last week and it discussed a common strategy applicable for all the registered groups joining the pharmacists Federation, said an influential office-bearer. According to him, the move for a common platform for all the registered pharmacists was started two years ago and efforts were being made to bring the like-minded pharmacists into one side.
 
As per information received, the Federation of registered pharmacists associations will act as an organisation parallel to the Tamil Nadu Chemists and Druggists Association (TNCDA), presently the largest trade body of medicines in the state. TNCDA is the state body of the all India organisation, AIOCD. With the emergence of the new trade body, TNCDA is likely to split.
 
Sources from the drugs control department said there are about 45,000 retail medical shops in Tamil Nadu. According to pharmacists organisations, owners of about 25,000 shops are not pharmacists, but licensed through hired pharmacists. The membership strength of TNCDA is below 30,000 and it is decreasing. A member of the chemist organisation said about 20,000 retail medical shops have no membership from TNCDA.
 
The pharmacists groups form the Federation not only for monopolizing the pharmacy business for pharmacists, but also to coordinate the registered pharmacists for the healthcare management system, said Tamil Venden, chairman of the Tamil Nadu Pharmacists Awareness Organisation.
 
Dr. Thirumalai Elango, the registrar of Tamil Nadu pharmacy council said there are 69,563 registered pharmacists in the state. Out of this, over 40,000 pharmacists are unemployed. The Federation will organize business chains to give as much opportunities to the qualified pharmacists. Venden said till now 17,000 pharmacists have registered with his organization’s website and in Dindukkal a district committee has been formed supported by 700 registered pharmacists associating with TNCDA.
 
Even though TNCDA is closely associating with TN IDMA and TN IPA and gaining support from the manufacturers, a section of the manufacturing industry from Tamil Nadu and from neighboring states is supporting the new initiative, reliable sources informed.
 
In the year 2012, a splinter group of the All Kerala Chemists and Druggists Association, comprising registered pharmacists, had formed a Retail Forum in Kerala and it is operating as a trade body of pharmacists.