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AICDF seeks PM's intervention to ensure uninterrupted supply of human albumin across country
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Peethaambaran Kunnathoor, Chennai
January 29 , 2015
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Even as the entire country is reeling under paucity of the life-saving
drug human albumin serum, the All India Chemists & Distributors’
Federation (AICDF) has sought the intervention of the Prime Minister and
the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to address the grave
situation being faced by the health sector for the last eight months.
The
paucity of human albumin drug started in July 2014 and all the
government hospital pharmacies and the in-house pharmacies of private
hospitals in the country have been facing acute shortage of it since
then. The medicine is also not available even in some community
pharmacies.
The reason for the shortage of this medicine is
attributed to the the manufacturing companies which are alleged to have
deliberately stopped production of this drug as the National
Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had brought the human albumin
serum under price control.
In a letter to the Prime Minister,
AICDF general secretary Joydeep Sarkar demanded to the government to
ensure uninterrupted supply of the life saving drug to save the patients
across the country. It also says that, taking advantage of the
situation, several manufacturers are persuading their customers to sell
the drug higher than the prescribed rate fixed by DPCO.
The
association has informed the NHRC that despite the country is facing
severe shortage of the medicine, all the state governments and the
government at the central are showing a lethargic attitude in solving
the problems.
While speaking to Pharmabiz, Joydeep Sarkar says,
“the drug is not available for the past three months in pharmacy stores
of government and private hospitals. Also it is not available with most
of the wholesalers, distributors or retailers. Patients are suffering a
lot and struggling hard to procure the drug. We are not only traders,
but also health workers. So it is our duty to make sure the availability
of all life saving drugs in the market”.
He said the Fair Price
Pharmacies at the government hospitals and medical colleges in West
Bengal are also running short of this drug for more than one year, and
the government is doing nothing to solve the crisis. The scarcity of
the essential medicine has also affected the liver and kidney operations
in several hospitals, not only in West Bengal, but in other states as
well.
A report from Kerala says that the shortage of human
albumin in the state-owned Karunya Pharmacies has turned the life of
patients miserable. A leading wholesaler in Kerala, Antony Tharian has
said the short supply of medicine has started in the state for a long
time and the manufacturing companies are not taking the demand request
seriously despite incessant pressures.
In Tamil Nadu, the
situation is much graver, says Kovai Kasiraman, Coimbatore district
president of the TNCDA. The drug is not available anywhere in the state
at present.
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