Gujarat FDCA puts updated info on retailers,wholesalers in public domain

Mumbai, 8 July: To ensure strong consumer awareness and effective delivery of services, the Gujarat Food & Drugs Control Administration, (FDCA) recently started an initiative that aims at bringing all the information relating to retailers and wholesalers from the state under the preview of public domain. With the information available freely on the official web site, FDCA hopes to bring in better transparency into the system that will enable effective functioning of the office . Under this new initiative, consumers will now be able to access data on any drugs that they require by just referring to the FDCA's website. One of the most touted feature of this software is that the users will be able to get all the information on retailers or chemists in the state along with the data on who are authorised to sell special drugs like schedule H and homoeopathic drugs in their shops. Dr H G Koshia, commissioner, FDCA informed that at present only select few chemists shops and retailers are allowed to sell these type of drugs due to the nature of the same. It requires special licence from the regulatory authority to indulge in this business which otherwise is a punishable offence under the Drugs and Cosmetics (D&C) Act. He stated, "Apart from creating consumer awareness, this system will help the regulatory authority also to keep a track on all the stakeholders activities by ensuring that they are not selling or involved in illegal any activities. Most importantly it will help us in making the system more transparent as all the information will be easily available to the public with just a click." This initiative is being undertaken by the state regulators as part of upgrading their e-governance programme that was launched in 2007. Through this programme the regulators hopes to achieve their overall aim of enhancing their delivery system and make it more user friendly. The regulators already has all the information on the stakeholders, as it is mandatory for all the wholesalers and retailers in the state to register themselves with the Gujarat FDCA for getting valid licence. However, it is only from last month that they have enabled this facility to the public, before that the consumers could get access to these data only through right to information (RTI) Act. Dr Koshia pointed out that the decision to publicise the data online about the retailers and wholesalers was taken after analysing and understanding the right to information (RTI) requests that his office received over the last one year. He stated, "We took a collective decision to upload the information because most of the RTI requests that we got till now were relating to the quires on whether a retailer is an authorised dealer or not and on the intricacies relating to pharmacy trade and business." He pointed out that now with easy availability of all the information online consumers can get all the information on a retailer, wholesaler or even pharmacists in their area.

Pharmabiz