Soon, you won’t have to buy entire strips of medicines

The Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs is likely to release an advisory to the pharma sector to make sure that patients have access to a smaller medicine strip and do not have to buy an entire strip

Hyderabad: Efforts are under way to ensure that chemists do not force patients to buy an entire strip of medicine if they do not need the full quantity.

In the coming days, the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs is likely to release an advisory to the pharma sector to make sure that patients have access to a smaller medicine strip and do not have to buy an entire strip.

---

Almost everybody at some point has faced the difficulty of cutting a medicine strip at a medical shop. Most pharmacists reject the pleas of customers and patients to cut a blister strip, especially those drugs that are expensive and not fast-moving in the market. As a result, even if the doctor has prescribed a medicine for a day or two, patients end up with an entire strip of the medicine, which financially burdens them.

There are certain formulations of drugs that come in 20 or even 30 tablets in each blister pack, and patients are forced to buy the entire strip. Addressing these difficulties, the Consumer Ministry, in the coming months, will issue an advisory to prevent this practice of forcefully selling entire strips to customers, who do not have any choice but to buy them.

Pharmacists familiar with the issue said cutting medicine strips is also unethical because sometimes information related to the expiry date, batch number and cost of the drug may not be visible to patients buying the drugs.

Moreover, there are no clear-cut provisions or directions on the aspect of cutting medicine strips in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, which regulates the import, manufacturing and retailing of medicines in India.