Urging the Union government to immediately roll back its decision to amend the Pharmacy and D&C Acts to enable unqualified persons to handle pharmacies under the pretext of shortage of qualified pharmacists, associations of pharmacists all over India are gearing up to block the move by holding national level agitations, protests, rallies and filing suits in courts.

Protest marches will be conducted towards all the zonal and sub-zonal offices of the Central Standard Drugs Control Organisation (CDSCO) all over the country by mobilizing support of all the registered pharmacists and pharmacy students in the country, informed leaders of various  associations.

As a first step, students of pharmacies from all the pharmacy colleges will send post cards to the Prime Minister, Health Minister, DCGI and the president of PCI urging them to abstain from the decision.

Responding to the decision of the government, Galileo George, general secretary of Kerala Private Pharmacist Association (KPPA) said this attempt to start refresher courses for the unqualified persons will shatter and destroy the established profession of pharmacy in the country.
 
Sofiur Rahman Khan, general secretary of the Association of Registered Pharmacists of Assam (ARPA), has responded that if the government wants to give training to unqualified medical store staffs and owners, first they should close down all the pharmacy colleges in the country and stop all pharmacy related programs. He asked the government if it would appoint carpenters in place of engineers if there was shortage of qualified engineers. Similarly, he wanted to know, whether the government would engage tractor drivers in place of pilots to fly aircrafts. He said ARPA will approach the court against the decision of the government if does not refrain from it.

Sofiur said there is no shortage of qualified pharmacists in the country, but the drugs control department in each state should reduce the number of retail licences issued to a particular area and limit the number of pharmacies. He said in north eastern states, the department is issuing 5-6 retail licences to each pharmacist and such illegal process should be controlled.

Objecting strongly against the decision of the government, the president of the Tamil Nadu Pharmacist Awareness Organisation (TNPAO), Tamil Venden, said he will stage a dharna before the DCGI office by mobilizing support of pharmacist groups in New Delhi. Simultaneously, TNPAO along with Tamil Nadu Pharmacist Welfare Association, will conduct protest march towards the CDSCO office in Chennai.

Saying that the Pharmacy Council of India will not in any way support the decision, the president of the Kerala Pharmacy Council, Rajan B Rajan said strong protest agitations will be held against the government decision as the move to amend the Pharmacy Act and Drug Act to conduct refresher course to help the pharma traders will expunge the pharmacy profession and take the sector back to the situation before 1948.

K.R. Dineshkumar, secretary of Kerala Pharmacist Society, a society of registered pharmacists, said he is in touch with all the pharmacist groups in the country and a national level meeting will be conducted in New Delhi in December first week to deliberate on future plans to protest the decision of the Union government.

The Federation of Indian Pharmacist Organisations has sent one letter to the Union government urging it not to go ahead with the decision of amendment of the acts for the sake of conducting refresher course. The association wanted the governments to issue retail licences only to registered pharmacists.