The Hindu : New Delhi News : Essential drugs disappear from Capital

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 18, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Essential drugs disappear from Capital

By Bindu Shajan Perappadan

NEW DELHI, FEB. 17. Over 4,000 brands of life saving and anti-depressant drugs have `disappeared' from the Capital's drug stock leading to their hoarding and black marketing. This follows the stalemate between chemists and the Government over the sale and record keeping of narcotic and psychotropic drugs.

In an order issued in January, the Government had asked chemists to keep records of the purchase of these drugs from companies and their subsequent sale to patients.

The chemists in turn refused to stock the medicines, which has now lead to an `artificial scarcity', hitting hard patients suffering from diabetes, heart ailments, blood pressure, epilepsy, nerve disorders depressions and those critically ill and on pain killers.

Also, simple anti-allergic drugs have also gone off the sales counter following the standoff. Drugs that have gone the counter include avil, clampose, alprax, fortwin and phenargan among others essential drugs.

The standoff has hit 4,000 brands of narcotic and psychotropic drugs bringing business of about Rs 1,500 crores to as many as 40 leading pharmaceuticals companies, according to officials.

As per the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act (1985), chemists are to keep the records of purchase and sale of the narcotic and psychotropic drugs failing which they would have to face enquiry by the police and maybe even jailed for three months without bail.

Previously representatives of the All-India Organisation of Druggists and Chemists, Indian Drug Manufacturers Association, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance and Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India met the health officials and claim to have got an assurance from them to `ease' the strict norms.

"There is a shortage as the distributors are not giving us the stocks. We have had talks with the officials who have assured us that things would become better and patients of course would be able to buy the essential medicines within the next ten days," promised the president All Delhi Chemists Association (ADCA), R.K. Bhatia.

And even while health officials claim that they are addressing the matter "as a high-priority" and work out ways of simplifying the procedures, they reiterate that the rule if implemented would go a long way to benefit the people only. "The rule requires that for each formulation a dealer prepare a form in triplicate and send two copies with dispatch and retain one acknowledged copy for two years. This is not a very difficult rule to follow but it would hamper the hoarding and sale of the drugs done in an unregulated manner which is why the chemists are protesting and holding patients to ransom," said the member of the Delhi Medical Council (DMC), Anil Bansal.

Other physicians in the Capital claim that the situation has gone from bad to worse "with essential drugs going off the counter, patients are forced to pay almost triple the original costs of the drug and some even shifting to dangerously habit forming drugs," explained the director of the Delhi Diabetic Research Centre, A.K. Jhingan.

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