Very few chemists possess licence to sell flu medicines

Mumbai: Procuring the swine flu medicines — Oseltami-vir and Zanamivir — has become difficult, with only a clutch of chemists possessing the requisite license to store and sell them, according to a swine flu patient. Most pharmacists in the city currently do not have the required license to store and sell swine flu drugs, according to the chemists’ association.

State health minister Dr Deepak Sawant had asked all doctors to prescribe Tamiflu tablets to patients with temperature running over 100 degrees. Further, all chemists had been granted permission to dispense Tamiflu to control swine flu. A senior health official said, “One of the reasons behind shortage of these medicines is that managers and chemists are not aware of the new government resolution that allows them to keep a stock of swine flu medicines in their stores.”

Jagannath Parkar, owner of a medical store at Dadar, said, “We do not have license to keep these medicines. We are not aware of the new instructions. If we apply for a license from the FDA, it is a totally time consuming process.”

Kinjal Shah (28), a resident of Wadala who was down with swine flu, had her family running from pillar to post to get the prescribed medicines.

Mrs Shah said, “Half of the medical stores in Matunga, Sion and Wadala did not have Tamiflu. My husband then went to a big medical store and after showing the prescription, we finally got the medicines. I have recovered and am fine now.”