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KPRDO seeks Centre’s intervention to for reimbursement on cut strips of expiry dated medicines
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Nandita Vijayasimha, Bengaluru
January 06 , 2025
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The Karnataka Pharma Retailers & Distributors Organization (KPRDO) has urged the Union health ministry for reimbursement for cut strips of expiry dated medicines.
In a communication to the Ministry and the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), KPRDO president C Jayaram said that an issue which is bothering the pharmacy retail chemists is that when medicine strips are cut to dispense drugs in loose quantities, the unsold balance often results in wastage. This leads to financial losses for retail chemists, as the remaining medicines in partially sold strips cannot always be sold before expiry. In such cases, the retail chemists stands to lose their investment on the same, resulting in heavy losses to retailers over the years.
There is an established practice that all pharmaceutical companies issue credit notes to dealers for the expired stocks returned in stipulated time, but unfortunately they do not accept cut strips of medicine. The dealers who collect the expired stocks from retail chemists in turn reject their claims/credit notes for such cut strips. This leads to a big financial burden resulting in huge financial losses for the retail chemists across the country, continued Jayaram in his communication.
Now the pharma retailers are in a dilemma. Despite our efforts to return these loose cut strips, pharma companies are refusing to accept, citing various reasons. This has led to significant financial burden on retailers across the country. Already the pharmacy trade business is operating on thin margins, he said.
Further, if the patient is compelled to take full strip, it will be a monetary burden on the patient. For example, if the prescribed drug strip is of 10 tables, but the doctor’s prescription is for 5 tabs only, we see this as a loss to the patients. There is a risk involved that the patient may consume remaining tablets in ignorance, leading to health complications. The recent trends show that pharmaceutical companies are introducing bigger strips of 20s, 30s, 50s, leading to more complications and losses, to the retail chemists, stated Jayaram.
In order to help everyone in pharmacy chain and the patient, cut strips should be dispensed to maintain correct dosage as per prescription. In fact, retailers across the country are engaged in giving cut strips to patients going by the fact that medicines are expensive and affordability is an issue.
Therefore, the government is now requested to pass necessary orders to pharma companies to accept return of loose tablets/capsules/injectable from retailers. The pharma industry will need to provide suitable credit notes or refunds for the returned loose cut strips. Also, the government will need to ensure timely collection of expired products to prevent their misuse.
KRPDO president also said that the intervention of the government in this regard will greatly benefit retailers across the country and help maintain the integrity of the pharmaceutical supply chain and also gives relief for pharma retailers and wholesalers across the country.
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