Chemists association denies allegations on medical store

Speaking to the media persons, Kodagu District Chemists’ Association President Ambekal Jeevan informed that reports which had appeared in few newspapers and television channels are far from truth. Deceased Nasima did not die after consuming tablet bought from a chemist shop, instead she had taken poison and was admitted to Kushalnagar hospital soon after she fell ill. Unfortunately, she breathed her last on the way to the district hospital for higher treatment, he said.

Expressing the grief of chemists, he said that owing to the false report from a section of media, public are doubtful about the chemist shops now. “People have started asking druggists if the medicines available are original or duplicate. This situation has severely hurt the emotions of druggists,” he said.

Further, he stated that chemists only sell medicines, they are not the manufacturers of medicine. “An ‘in house’ quality test is carried out by the producers before medicine enters into the market. Every batch of medicine comes to the market only after passing the quality test. Every batch of medicine samples are stored in the company till the end of expiry date, so as to perform quality test. The test is done nce in every six months and if some irregularities are found in the medicine, they will be taken back from the market immediately,” he informed.

“It has been proved that medicine is not responsible for the death cases in Suntikoppa hospital. We will release the related report to the media at the earliest,” he said.

Arguing about Suntikoppa incident, he questioned that if the death cases at Suntikoppa hospital were due to the side effects of medicine, why not other people who have consumed the medicine from same batch have not fallen ill? Medicines of the same batch have been distributed to various parts of our state, but similar cases have not been reported from anywhere, he told.

“It is unfortunate that public have thrown stones to the chemist shop and shown their anguish on the innocence chemist shop owner. Shop owner has given the medicine as per doctor’s prescription. Report of the test conducted has proved that medicines in the shop are of good quality,” he informed and added that medicines are supplied to the government hospitals only after receiving reports from the experimental lab certified from the government.

Association Secretary Purushothama, treasury Prasad Gowda and Vice-president Ambekal Vinod were present.