TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Even as the pharmacists and chemists in the state are gearing up for a token one day strike today, to protest against government policies, a schism has developed within the fraternity, with a section of pharmacists opposed to their third demand, which seeks to permit the partner/proprietor of a pharmacy as a qualified person to dispense medicines.
Currently medicines are allowed to be dispensed only under the supervision of a qualified and registered pharmacist who minimum qualification is Bachelor in Pharmacy degree.
The All India Association of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) which has given the strike call as well as the Chemists and Druggists Association of Goa (CDAG) has sought that in view of the severe shortage of qualified pharmacists they be allowed to employ those who do a condensed course in pharmacy and they should be allowed to dispense medicines since druggists today only dispense medicines as prescribed by the doctors and are no more formulating compounds.
“The AIOCD represents the interests of its 7.5 lakh members and there is a shortage. There has been a condensed course in the past and many pharmacists today are products of that course. We want that this course be restarted because of the shortage,” Lyndon D’Silva, secretary of CDAG told Herald.
He added that the course was only to sell medicines in the pharmacy and not to give persons the qualification to act as a chemist elsewhere.
However another section says that this is a dangerous demand. “Can a person, who because he has been at a hospital for four of five years, become a doctor? Ratnadeep Kurtarkar a pharmacist asked Herald. He said he was clearly opposing the strike because he and several other pharmacists did not agree with this demand of the AIOCD.
The main demand of the AIOCD is to maintain the trade margins of pharmacists on medicines and not to reduce it in the forthcoming Drugs (Price Control) Order 2013 considering the rising operational costs.
Their contentious demand is “to resolve the long pending issue of shortage of pharmacists and suitably amend Rule 65(15)(c) of Drugs and Cosmetics Rules to permit-the partner/proprietor as a qualified person to dispense the medicines.”
They have also demanded that Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) should not be permitted in distribution and retailing of medicines as there are families of 25 Lakh (over one crore people) employees are subsisting on this livelihood through employment in this sector and relief under Section 19 of the Drugs & Cosmetics Act 1940, to the innocent dealer who may have acted with bona fide intentions, if he submits valid documents of transactions. Administration should not prosecute him till his guilt can be proved.
“We have no problem and are supporting the other three demands but we do not agree to this demand,” Kurtarkar said.
A large number of pharmacies are expected to remain closed Friday.
