Date: 05-Apr-2021

TSDCA Uncovers 21,087 Violations Out Of 87,700 Inspections Of Drug Stores During Past 5 Years In Telangana

The Telangana State Drug Control Administration (TSDCA) has uncovered as many as 21,087 violations by pharmacy stores, blood banks, hospitals and pharma companies during the past 5 years in the state.

As it is already known that recently the Telangana High Court had sought a detailed report from TSDCA as to how many inspections have been conducted, and how many pharmacy stores have violated the Drugs and Cosmetic Act and the Pharmacy Act in the state. In response to this, the TSDCA had revealed that out of 87,700 inspections conducted by the authorities it has identified as many as 21,087 cases of violations amongst pharmacy stores, blood banks, hospitals and pharma companies during the past 5 years and of these violations 75 per cent violations are being identified amongst the pharmacy stores in the state.

According to DCA authorities, most of the medical stores are not following the storage norms of medicines in the medical shops. Majority of them are storing the low temperature medicines in normal shelf and not keeping them in the refrigerators as mandated by the Drugs and Cosmetic Act and Pharmacy Act. Not just this, majority medical shops are also selling veterinary medicines along with allopathic medicines meant for humans.

“Among the major violations we observed most of the medical shops are not strictly following the temperature control norms while storing the sensitive medicines. A few of them are also selling veterinary medicines without proper permission for the same. We have also noted that majority medical shops are dispensing the medicines without the presence of a registered pharmacist and the unqualified persons who are appointed as assistants in the medical shops are dispensing the medicines to the patients without proper prescription by the doctors. These technicians are most of the time found to be selling brands of medicines other than prescribed by the doctors and that too at a very higher price than the MRP price,” informed a senior official from TSDCA, while revealing about the violations by pharmacy stores during their inspections.

It is also observed that majority of the pharmacy and medical stores have been found fault at not maintaining proper register or records of the sales of their medicines.

Among the inspections conducted against the pharma companies, the TSDCA authorities have noted that majority companies violating the quality norms are found to be using low quality raw materials for preparing the medicines. Not just this, they were also not adhering to proper labelling norms stipulated by the regulatory authorities.

“Among the violations by the pharma companies most of the violators are using low quality raw materials for preparing the medicines and they are also not adhering to labelling norms and printing higher MRP rates for the medicines as against the norms stipulated by the regulatory authorities,” said Dr. Preethi Meena, director general of TSDCA.

On the other hand among the violations of blood banks, it is learnt that the blood banks are not adhering to maintaining of proper temperature while storing the blood. It under stood most of the violators are not maintaining the temperature of 2-8 degrees in blood banks and they are also not conducting regular testing of the blood samples from time to time to ascertain their quality. Most of the blood banks are also violating the norms and not even taking permission for storing the blood parts like plasma and platelets and going against the regulatory norms and causing a great danger to the health of the people, observed the drug control authorities.