Patna: A whistleblower has written a letter to Economic Offences Unit (EOU) additional director-general J.S. Gangwar alleging a nexus between pharmaceutical shops, registered pharmacists and the state drug control administration officials in running medicine shops illegally.

The letter says that most medicine shops are running without "physical presence of a pharmacist" and that "most of the pharmacists are involved in more than one pharma shop on paper".

According to the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, each medicine shop should have a registered pharmacist, and a pharmacist cannot be employed with more than one shop. Pharmacists play a major role in the sale of over-the-counter drugs for which a doctor's prescription is not required. To be employed as a pharmacist, one should have a Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharma) degree or diploma in pharmacy (DPharma).

The whistleblower, in the letter to Gangwar sent on April 2, has claimed that a pharmacist's involvement in more than one shop can be easily verified by reviewing the details of pharmacists uploaded on the health department website.

The whistleblower, whose name The Telegraph on request, has asked Gangwar to review the data available on the health department website and take action.

The whistleblower had in February written a letter on the same issue to chief minister Nitish Kumar.

The whistleblower said: "When a person applies for a drug licence from the state drug control administration, the pharmacist has to submit an affidavit that s/he would be involved with only that shop. Most pharmacists in the state are involved in more than one shop.

"When you visit a store, you won't find a pharmacist," the whistleblower added. "This is illegal. I suspect it is continuing because there is a nexus between the state drug control administration, pharmacists and shopowners. It is a pity that state authorities are not taking cognisance of the matter, which is directly related to public health."

State drug controller Ravindra Kumar Sinha confirmed receiving the letter.

"Assistant drug controllers in districts have been asked to submit a compliance report after we received the letter," Sinha said. "Details of only a few pharmacists is uploaded on the health department website. However, we are going to address this duplication issue of pharmacists because we are going to make the drug control administration system online. The details of pharmacies and registered pharmacists have been sought from districts. All this would be uploaded within one-and-a half months, after which we would take action."

Gangwar said: "If a letter has come, action will be taken. But first we will seek a report from the health department. Only after getting the report, action would be initiated."