Alleging that the present administration of the Tamil Nadu Pharmacy Council (TNPC) is not at all interested to appoint pharmacy inspectors based on Pharmacy Act and also to initiate any step towards implementing Pharmacy Practice Regulations 2015 (PPR), various associations of registered pharmacists have said that they would field their members in the ensuing pharmacy council election in the state.

For election purpose, the associations plan to join together and work on a common agenda.

Office-bearers of major associations allege that the present administrative body is favouring the non-pharmacist pharma traders and giving them full support to do medicine business. According to Tamil Nadu Pharmacists Association (TNPA), about 80 per cent of the wholesale and retail pharma traders in the state have no pharmacy background. The Council president is fully aware of this unethical business, but keeping silence over it, they allege.

“If pharmacy inspectors are appointed, they will recommend for enforcing Pharmacy Act which mandates that medicine sales should be carried out under the supervision of qualified pharmacists. The number of non-pharmacist traders in Tamil Nadu is increasing day by day only because of the support of the pharmacy council. We appealed to the Council Registrar and the president several times to appoint pharmacy inspectors, but by citing lame excuses they support unethical pharma business. This has to be stopped, so we want to contest the election and elect a new president for the Council”, said Thanjore Patten Raj, general secretary of TNPA.

Patten Raj said TNPA got support from another organisation, Tamil Nadu Pharmacists Welfare Association (TN PWA), and in their joint meeting held in Madurai last month, both the organisations decided to contest jointly the council election. In the meeting, the president of TNPWA, Theni Nagaraj has been appointed as the chairman of the newly formed Apex Committee. Secretary of the Welfare Association, Arun Singh will act as vice-chairman. According to Patten, TNPA has a membership strength of 15000 registered pharmacists belonging to 25 districts in the state.

Responding to queries from Pharmabiz, Arun Singh said his organisation has more than 8,000 registered pharmacists as members. The annual general body of TNPWA, which is scheduled to be held in the last week of this month, will decide the future programme of action with regard to the election. He said discussion is going on among the office-bearers for merger of both the organisations also.

When contacted, TNPC Registrar Dr. Thirumalai Elango unofficially said that the notification of council election is likely to be published in the official gazette of June 1, and the election process will start on July 4. The process will be completed on November 16. According to him, the number of registered pharmacists in Tamil Nadu is 68746. They will elect six members to the Council. The election is conducted as per section 19 (a) of the Pharmacy Act.

Commenting on the decision of the pharmacists associations, Elango said there is only one pharmacists’ organisation in the private level and that is TNPWA, and TNPA is inactive. The letters he sent to TNPA are always returning and emails are bouncing back. He said he is in touch with all the office-bearers of the pharmacists welfare association, but nobody from TNPA has approached the Council yet.

TNPA, under the strong leadership of Thanjore Patten Raj has conducted several agitations and sit-in-dharnas before the secretariat and different collectorates raising various demands and highlighting a range of issues. Newspapers and other media including Pharmabiz and TV channels all over the state have given wide coverage to their programmes several times.