Hyderabad: Wholesalers require to have registered pharmacists in their unit so that transportation, storage and handling of medicines are carried out in a proper way to avoid constant complaints of spoilage, lack of efficacy and improper handling of complex drugs.
K Sai Kumar, national president of the Doctor of Pharmacy Association, explained, “There is a growing need for scientific storage and transportation of drugs as their potency has to be preserved to protect the health of the patient. In the months of summer, we find that many medicines get spoiled as the temperatures touch 40 degrees C. In TS and Andhra Pradesh this is a very regular complaint and it is becoming important to re-look at the supply chain.”
The government of India, department of pharmaceuticals, states that wholesalers and stockists of medicines must have a registered pharmacist in their unit. With eight lakh pharmacists unemployed in India, their presence in the supply chain will help to provide safe and efficient medicines to the patients.
The wholesalers and stockists do not dispense medicines but they are responsible for storage and handling. A senior pharmacist explained, “Presently, there are major gaps as there is no proper guidelines on the requirement of air-conditioned units by stockists. Hence the medicines are prepared in a controlled temperature and transported. In certain areas, the heat is found to spoil huge stocks which also result in losses for the stockists.”
With cancer drugs and also other complex drugs being introduced, it is becoming very important to have a proper handling mechanism in place to ensure that the toxicities do not affect the working personnel in the unit. These inherent dangers have now come to light, where it is strongly felt that there must be expert handling at the middle level too. At the same time, maintaining the appropriateness of the formulations and delivering them properly to the patients is very important.
