Chemists and Druggists - Demands

All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists is planning a nationwide shut down of retail medical shops on March 28 to press its demand for allowing retail drug store owners with more than two years of experience to dispense medicines. A representation in this regard has been already submitted to the Union law ministry, Union health ministry and Drug Controller General of India early this month. As per section 42 of the Pharmacy Act, only a qualified pharmacist registered with the State Pharmacy Council is authorized to dispense medicines in retail medical stores. Although this section came into effect on September 1,1984 to end the practice of running medical shops without qualified persons, most of the medical stores are being run in the country without the presence of a pharmacist

Some of the pharmacists and shop owners in rural and semi urban areas may find it difficult to have online registration of narcotic drugs as they are not computer literate. And the other issue is with regard to enforcement of Schedule H1 to curb the indiscriminate use of antibiotics and some other drugs. AIOCD points out that pharmacy owners are being harassed by the drug control officials for not maintaining proper records for the sales of drugs covered under the new Schedule.


As per the Schedule H1, a separate register for these drugs needs to be maintained as it includes anti TB drug and habit forming drugs. Regulatory authorities need to enforce these two conditions but they have to be flexible for some time considering the practical problems faced by a large section of the trading community. At the same, the demand to allow unqualified persons to dispense medicines at the retail counters is not acceptable considering the fact there are several thousands of pharmacists available in the country and many more are coming out every year from country's pharmacy colleges.