Officials of the East Bardhaman drug control department raided pharmacies across Bardhaman town in West Bengal on Thursday after complaints that customers were being made to buy whole strips of medicine rather than the amount on their prescription. They checked sales receipts and stock registers, and whether certain drugs were being sold without a prescription.
The officials told shopkeepers to cut strips and sell exactly what the prescription requires. One gave an example: a doctor prescribes three days of a drug, six tablets would do, but buyers were forced to take ten because the strip was not cut. District drug controller Abdul Odut said forcing whole strips on customers would not be allowed and that a shop caught doing it could lose its drug licence; he asked the public to report such cases with evidence.
Sellers cite losses. Ashok Saha, a pharmacist in Khosbagan, said companies will not take back cut strips, and that competition means discounts of 14 to 15 percent, in some shops 20 to 22 percent. They would be careful from now on, he said.
According to sources, East and West Bardhaman together have about 3,500 pharmacies, at least 3,100 of them without a permanent pharmacist on the premises. Many pharmacists are alleged to rent out their licences to shop owners for money. Officials did not say whether this is being investigated.
At a meeting in Rupnarayanpur with the owners of about 30 shops in Chittaranjan and Rupnarayanpur, Kuntal Roy, secretary of the Asansol branch of the Bengal Chemists and Druggists Association, said sleeping pills and narcotic drugs must not be sold without a prescription, a photocopy of each prescription must be kept, and antibiotics on a prescription more than three months old need fresh advice from a doctor. Shops selling baby food were told to get a food registration certificate, and expired medicines must be kept in a separate, marked box.
This report is based on reporting by Ei Samay's Bardhaman and Asansol correspondents.
Photo: Yu TANAKA / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Source: Ei Samay
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