The Hindu Business Line : Wanted: A prescription for pharma storage

"STORE in a cool dry place away from direct sunlight" reads the label on a strip of medicine or its carton. But do chemist shops store medicines as indicated on their labels? A moot question, given that medicines tend to lose their potency if they are not stored as indicated.

Last year, consumers came face to face with the grim reality of storage issues in the food segment, when worms surfaced in chocolate bars.

The company producing the chocolate claimed that bad storage practices at the shop level had resulted in worms getting into the chocolate.

"The situation is just as worrisome with medicines. Bad distribution, transportation and storage practices could result in the consumer buying a sub-standard product," points out Dr D.B. Anantha Narayana, Managing Trustee of the Delhi Pharmaceutical Trust (DPT).

"Whether at the chemist shop or at home, medicines lose their potency if not stored in a cool place.

But how many chemists have air-conditioners? Drug companies take care to manufacture and package medicines.

But there are no standard rules regarding the subsequent handling, transportation and distribution," says Mr Prafull D. Seth of the Indian Pharmaceutical Association.

The DPT is an offshoot of IPA, a national forum for pharmacists.

"There are good clinical practice (GCP) and good manufacturing practice (GMP) norms in the country governing pharma companies. But one needs good pharmacy practices (GPP) too," says Mr Seth.

Citing a DPT study done in the Capital, he said, basic requirements, such as a refrigerator, were not present in some chemist shops.

"Drugs should not be viewed as a commodity. There should be norms governing the premises where medicines are sold, the person selling it should be trained and competent and not a 10-year-old boy!"

Pharma companies, too, need to be pro-active to ensure that the quality of their medicines does not get eroded due to bad storage and handling. The onus should be on them to simplify labelling and educate chemists and consumers, industry representatives say.

"At home, how often do we remove medicines from their cartons and place them by the bedside, window-ledge or in the bathroom, exposing them to heat and humidity? A medicine's expiry date is calculated against a given temperature and environment. So if those conditions are not maintained, the expiry date is irrelevant," says DPT's Dr Narayana.

Consumers should ask their chemist how to store medicines at home, he advises, given that vaccines and semi-solid preparations should not be stored in a refrigerator.

Mumbai takes the lead

MUMBAI will possibly be the first city in the country where all chemists would install air-conditioners in their shops by January 2005.

Mr Uttam Khobragade, Maharashtra's Commissioner of Food and Drug Administration, told Business Line that the step was taken to ensure that medicines don't lose their potency.

Andhra Pradesh, too, is looking to link a mandatory air-conditioner requirement with the renewal of chemist licences while Karnataka is evaluating the issue.

The Central Government also is looking at similar issues, sources said.

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