Frauds in State Pharmacy Business

The front-page news item published in this daily on its May 16, 2020 issue is an eye-opener that there has been such a big fraud in healthcare in Assam. The State has thousands of pharmacies that are being run under fake registration of pharmacists. What’s unbelievable is that thousands of such pharmacies with fake pharmacists’ registrations have been minting money in the State over the decades risking public health. A genuine poser is: how could the earlier authorities concerned be so negligent in an important issue like public health?

The modus operandi adopted by these frauds is not something that is very difficult to unearth if there is political will. Under the Pharmacy Act, 1948 pharmacists get registered in two different ways – either through Section 32(B) or through Section 32 (2) of the Act. Those getting registered through Section 32(B) of the Act are actually pharmacists who get registered outside Assam and shift to the State through re-registration. On the contrary, pharmacists who opt for Section 32 (2) of the Act are direct registration in the State. Allegations were doing the rounds in the State in 2008 that most of the pharmacies being run in the State with re-registration through Section 32(B) of the Act are fake ones. The State government then formed a scanning committee to ascertain the veracity of the allegation. The scanning committee found the allegation true, and recommended the Assam Pharmacy Council (APC) to cancel the registrations of all the fake pharmacists. Some of the pharmacists in question and their organizations moved the Gauhati High Court only to get trapped. The High Court clubbed all the cases together and issued an order on May 31, 2018 asking all the pharmacists having registered through Section 32(B) of the Pharmacy Act, 1948 to submit their documents to the APC for verification. The pharmacists then started to falter, and only 14 of them submitted their documents to the APC for verification, but the rest did not. Following subsequent orders from the High Court altogether 1,021 pharmacists submitted their documents to the APC that made no delay to form an expert committee for the verification of the documents. Strangely enough, the expert committee has found that all the documents are fake ones. Now the cat is out of the bag. That led the APC to issue show-cause notices to all the 3,174 pharmacists who shifted to Assam from other States through re-registration. However, many of the pharmacists did not reply to the show-cause notices issued to them and that prompted the APC to cancel the registration of 1,374 pharmacists and tell the State Drug Control Administration to cancel the licences of pharmacies that are being run in the State with fake registration of pharmacists. Citing official sources, the report said that the replies of the show-cause notices submitted by the pharmacists in question are also under examination for taking action.

This is the crux of the forgery that smacks of a bigger racket that can never be so deep-rooted without any political or other patronage. How could the frauds dodge the entire administrative machinery over the decades in an important subject like public health? Even if the licenses of the pharmacies that are being run with fake registration of pharmacists are cancelled, one cannot remain contented unless and until those patronizing such frauds are exposed and punished. Such a fraud has long-term ramifications – first, forgery of any sort in healthcare is fraught with danger. Second, a large number of qualified pharmacists of the State have been unemployed or not properly employed. How come a State government that cannot provide jobs to thousands of qualified pharmacists of the State allows thousands of pharmacists with fake registrations from other states to enter the State market of medicines?