HC issues notice to Telangana, Centre over illegal drug sales

HYDERABAD: The Telangana high court on Wednesday sought to know from the state and Union governments and their respective drug control administration departments if they had been implementing provisions under the Drugs & Cosmetics Act and Pharmacy Act properly.


The HC bench of Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy, which converted a letter by pharmacist A Sitarambabu from Ashoknagar into a PIL, issued notices to state and central authorities asking them to file their counters in two weeks.

The petitioner contended that it has become all the more necessary during the ongoing pandemic to ensure that all medical shops run as prescribed by law.

Bringing to the court's notice the ongoing practice of alleged unauthorised and indiscriminate sale of antibiotics over the counter by people who do not possess any pharmacy education, the petitioner said this was endangering public health. "The secondary bacterial infections could become untreatable because of indiscriminate, over-the-counter sale of even schedule H1 antibiotics. Most drug stores are run in the absence of a licensed pharmacist. Drug control officials seldom inspect these stores," Sitarambabu said in his plea.

"...If the schedule H1 antibiotics including parenteral (injectable) antibiotics are sold by non-pharmacists against prescriptions of quacks even for simple flu then the situation becomes precarious..." Sitarambabu said in his plea. He added that this could lead to a steep increase in mortality rates across the state. "Most vulnerable are the poor who rely on retail medical stores," he said and urged the court to ensure that medicines are invariably dispensed by pharmacists only as per law.