SubscriberWrites: Drugs and cosmetics Act needs reform. Pharmacists do not get their due in India

Thank you dear subscribers, we are overwhelmed with your response.

Your Turn is a unique section from ThePrint featuring points of view from its subscribers. If you are a subscriber, have a point of view, please send it to us. If not, do subscribe here: https://theprint.in/subscribe/

Dogs here dont bark at people. I am yet to encounter an incident where a dog barked at a human being.  For a desi like me who encountered many street dogs and nosiy residential pet dogs, this is a miracle. Analysing the factors that lead to dogs not being  nosiy or not being mad at people is my favourite issue for discussion over tea with other Indians. In this article though i would like to discuss about  my other fascination – medicines. 

We are a generic manufacturing powerhouse and have been Pharmacy of the world. But, pharmacy practice in Indiafalls short in servicing the patients when compared to other countires. Let me explain further. 

Medicines dispensed against a prescription by pharmacist in Iceland always have a pharmacists label. This label is attached by the pharmacist on the dispensed medicines before handing over medicines to the patient . It contains the details of the name of the patient to whom it was prescribed, details of the doctors prescribing the medicine, dosage imformation and other key information required to take the medicine appropriately. Attaching this label is the service provided by the pharmacists to their patients. Providing this service is mandated by law in many countries (including Srilanka) and is regulated as Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP).  Hence these labels are also standardised to be legible unlike the need to understand precription information from the illegible doctors prescrptions. These labels act as ready reference to patients and care takers  on prescription information throughout the course of the treatment. 

Indian patients do not receive this service. They are to either decode doctors prescrption or memorise the information orally provided to them by health care providers.    Understanding why pharmacist labels are not mandated by law in India helps one understand every thing wrong with Practice of Pharmcy in India. When compared to other countries, pharmacists in India are made irrelavent in the healthcare ecosystem. Colonizers introduced westren medicine to patients in India through business men and did not mandate the principles of GPP as was the practice in Great Britan. Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 also does not mandate the need for attaching legible information on usage of medicine. Most national regulations have mandated it. We are still struck on the same relationship between patient , medicine and business men. Services of the Pharmacists are completely out of this equation. It surprises me that no one is championing this cause among indian intellectuals. 

There is a wide spread consensus in our country that Drugs and Cosmetics Act is outdated. But, there is another opinion that this act made us the Pharmacy of the world. I would argue that reforming this act should also enable us being a safe pharmacy. Every time childeren die of taking cough medicines made in India, it breaks our heart. We all know these deaths can be prevented with of adequate reforms. 

This act personally affected my carrer too. In 2015, there was a notification for recruitment of 147 posts of Drugs Inspector in the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), Ministry of Health & Welfare (UPSC Vacancy number – 15020403128). I was shortlisted for interview after clearing the computer based test held on 26 July 2015. The email from UPSC that notified me about me being shortlisted for interview was one of the highlights of my professional carrer. As requested by that email, i sent out my education credentials and experience details to UPSC and was preparing for the interview. What followed was one of the greatest dissapointment of my carrer – an email from UPSC on 08 July 2016 that said my candidature was cancelled due to lack of essential experience.  By that time i finished my bachelors and masters in Pharmacy and had more than 3 years of experience in Quality Assurance in Biocon and Dr.Reddy´s lab. The criteria masters in pharmacy candidates were to meet was eighteen months experience in the manufacture or testing of substances specified in Schedule ´C´ to the Drugs and Cosmetic Rules, 1945. To this date i dont understand how i did not meet this criteria. Years passed, i moved out of India and still feel sad about this incident. 

There are many champions in India who are righfully vocal about transforming Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Rules and I agree with all of them. Yes, we need to reform everything from manufacturing requirements, pharmacovigilance,  inspection approach and recruitment. Yes,we have to become safe pharmacy of the world. Can we also please be vocal about brining pharmacists labels into the healthcare equation?