Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Monday, Jan 24, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Monday, Jan 24, 2005 |
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Pharmaceuticals Marketing - Retailing Pharma retailers threaten to stop stocking psychotropic medicines — Allege harassment under narcotic drugs Act P.T. Jyothi Datta
Mumbai , Jan. 23 WHEN a cough syrup, for instance, is used "to get a high" rather than for medical reasons, the line gets blurred between medicines and intoxicants. And the issue is set to flare up in the face of consumers, come February. Chemists across the country have threatened to stop purchasing psychotropic drugs, including anti-depressants, sleeping tablets, anti-cancer medicines and other drugs used in post-operative care that come under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS), 1985. The complaint is that pharma retailers are getting the rough end of the stick used by the Government to plug the abuse of psychotropic medicines. Chemists are scared to stock these drugs fearing increased raids on them, points out Mr J.S. Shinde, General Secretary of the All-India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD). According to him, psychotropic drugs account for about 35 per cent of the total Rs 30,000-crore pharma market and the freeze on purchase from February will create a shortage of life-saving drugs. Already shortages are being reported in the western and northern regions of the country, he said. The AIOCD has an estimated 5.5 lakh chemists and stockists across the country under its umbrella. "We had represented to the Government in 1985 and they had, in fact, promised to amend the Act and even advised State governments against acting on the same. And while that was the case for the past several years, last year has seen an increased number of pharma retailers coming under the scanner of the Narcotics Control Bureau - about 5,000 inquiries, 35 cases were launched and about 12 people are behind bars," he said. What is worrisome is that under the Act, pharma retailers can be jailed for 90 days without bail, he points out. And when an inquiry is under way, chemists are required to have prescriptions for the last two years and details of the persons that they have sold these medicines to, he added. He admitted that there may be an abuse of drugs, but in an attempt to fix that problem, genuine retailers and eventually consumers are getting hurt. The AIOCD has made its representation to a slew of union ministries, including Finance (under whose purview the Act comes), Health and Chemicals and Fertilizer, he said.
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