Even as the Tamil Nadu Pharmacy Council (TNPC) is going ahead with all efforts to gain the support of the state government for sanction to appoint pharmacy inspectors following the introduction of Pharmacy Practice Regulations 2015, various associations of drug traders here are chalking out strategies to oppose the move of the council.

The traders’ apprehension is that if the Pharmacy Act is implemented strictly, majority of the pharmacy owners have to withdraw from the field as most of them are not qualified in pharmacy education. The educational background of several of the association leaders at the national and state levels is different from pharmacy.

While interacting with Pharmabiz, N. Anandan, general secretary of Tamil Nadu Chemists and Druggists Association (TNCDA), an organisation of 45,000 retailers, said his organisation does not in any way welcome the move of the pharmacy council and expressed the hope that the state government would not accord sanction to appoint the inspectors. According to him, there are more than sufficient drug inspectors who are properly monitoring and supervising the sale and movement of drugs in the state. If the pharmacy council also intends to do the same job, it will create unnecessary misunderstanding and disturbance to the business people. Besides, there will be disputes on who is having more power, he opined.

The secretary of the Tamil Nadu Chemists and Druggists Federation (TNCDF), state unit of AICDF, V. P. Elango, responding in line with his national organisation’s point of view, said his association is taking the issue more seriously and discuss it in detail in the executive committee in next week. AICDF is organising a countrywide agitation urging the government not to implement Pharmacy Act.

The chairman of the apex committee of the Confederation of Indian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Marketers Association (CIPMMA), Karunai Kadal and convener, A. Kannan are of the opinion that inspection at drugs stores by drugs control officials is enough. While talking to Pharmabiz, he said in India 75 per cent of the pharmacies are not maintained by qualified pharmacists. But, all these pharmacies are managed by minimum qualified persons with experience and they have appointed qualified pharmacists. The certificates of the pharmacists are displayed in all the pharmacies. Further, the pharmacies are registered with the drugs control department and working under the licences granted for buying and selling of medicines. In addition to this, experienced sales people are engaged to sell medicines to the people on the prescription of registered medical practitioners. These are all monitored by the drugs control officials periodically, so there is no need of additional checking by pharmacy inspectors.

CIPMMA leaders said if the pharmacy council wants to appoint inspectors, they should be assigned to do the duty under the strict supervision of drug inspectors. A member of pharmacy council said the drugs control officials are against appointing pharmacy inspectors and they want to maintain supervision of  drugs trade under their control.

Kovai Kasiraman, an executive member of AIOCD and a leading wholesale dealer in Nilgiri, Coimbatore and Namakkal, responded that the move of PCI could not be welcomed or supported.

Dr. Thirumalai Elango, registrar of TNPC, said the council is going ahead with its plan of appointing inspectors and it is committed to implement Pharmacy Act in Tamil Nadu. The president of the council Dr. Chinnasamy is remaining silent over the issue.