The Federation of Gujarat State Chemists and Druggists Associations members on Friday announced that they would show their solidarity with All India Organisation of Chemists & Druggists (AIOCD) and join the nationwide strike on May 30 against the proposal by the central health ministry to regulate sale of drugs through e-portal and implementation of online pharmacy.
The federation members also stressed that they are not against the generic drugs, as proposed by the PM, but want a level-playing field for betterment of the sector. Jashvant Patel, president of the federation, said in Ahmedabad on Friday that one of the major factors for high price of branded medicines is the 2016 rules of market-based price byDPCO against the system implemented in 2013 where the price was decided by the production cost. "The production cost model would remove the discrepancies currently seen in the drug market where one company would be selling two products with same composition at different prices," he said.
Pradip Trivedi, secretary of the federation, said that Jan Aushadhi andDeen Dayal counters also have price differences seen in the open market. "When we searched for Atorvastatin medicine in Rajkot at Jan Aushadhi centre, a strip was for Rs 9.20. At two different Deen Dayal medical stores, it was not available as generic and two different brands were available for Rs 12.81 and Rs 22.40 per strip of 10 tablets," he said. Trivedi said that the same difference applies to the open market due to different pricing policy. "The generic stores can give other medicines but for the licensed chemists, it is legally banned to provide the medicine other than the one in prescription. The disparity should be addressed," he said.
(Reference: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/chemists-to-go-on-strike-on-may-30/articleshow/58540995.cms)