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Telangana CDA urges DCA to conduct raids in discount pharmacies for violating NPPA norms
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Peethaambaran Kunnathoor, Chennai
April 24 , 2024
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For getting maximum penalties to the violators of the NPPA rules, the Chemists and Druggists Association in Telangana (Telangana CDA) has urged the state drugs control administration (DCA) to take action against those traders and chain pharmacy groups who implement discount strategies to attract customers by violating the norms of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA).
The association alleges that the major reason for the spurious drugs is due to the growth of the discount pharmacies. All over India, wherever spurious drugs were found or confiscated those were all manufactured in one state in north India. The discount pharmacies are getting medicines mostly from this state. So, while conducting raids in stockists’ or retailers’ premises for spurious drugs, simultaneously the same action should be carried out in the discount pharmacies also. There are chances for spurious drugs in discount pharmacies.
“Selling medicines on prices less than the MRP fixed by the national drug price regulator is a violation equal to that of charging overpricing of medicines. The NPPA has fixed 10 per cent commission for wholesalers and 20 per cent for retailers. Charging excess or less prices of the MRP is a violation of the NPPA norms,” says R Srinivas, president of the Telangana CDA.
The trade leader said his association has wanted the state government and the DCA director general to stop this illegitimate and illegal activity in the state of Telangana. The discount pharmacies are offering discounts under the pretext of giving benefits to the patients. “We are deeply sceptical about the quality of their medicines. If a patient buys 10 strips of a medicine one out of them will be duplicated. Nobody knows which is genuine or which is bogus. It is the duty of the government to conduct a raid in the discount pharmacies against this kind of malpractices,” he said.
According to Srinivas, some major companies who manufacture their products on third party contracts and those who undertake this contract manipulate the process and violate all rules and regulations of manufacturing. He said so many spurious drugs under the name of big brands are there in the market, but the companies are not aware of this malpractice committed by the third party manufacturers. Srinivas has written to all the companies in Telangana to affix one QR code with all the details of the company with batch number, MRP and expiry of the product, so that the public can know the genuineness of the product by scanning the QR code. He said most of the manufacturing companies are innocent in this, but there are some marketers in the middle of the business who are doing all these malpractices.
Further, the CDA has wanted the drug control administration to restrain the discount pharmacies from offering discounts as they are violating the NPPA rules. The Government of India has fixed a price and also fixed a particular percent of commission for the traders. Then how can a group of people violate the norms fixed by the government, he asked by saying that their activity is against all the drug laws.
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