Non-prescription drugs may come to retail stores soon

Cough lozenges, pain relievers and anti-fungal creams may soon be available at a neighbourhood grocery store near you, in a move that promises easy access to common medicines but raises concerns of potential misuse.

- Priyanka Sharma

The Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) decided last month that several medicines that do not need a prescription may be sold at retail outlets, three people aware of the matter said. These include analgesics, anti-allergics, anti-histamines, cough syrups, laxatives, antifungal products, and certain asthma drugs.

Though retail stores won't need a pharmacist like regular chemists, they will need to secure a licence for selling these medicines, also called over-the-counter (OTC) drugs.

"The government is finalizing the list of OTC drugs and products which can be sold at retail shops. The government has been working on this for a long time, and a final decision is to be taken shortly," said one of the three people cited above, who attended the DTAB meet.

The move spells relief for consumers who can pick up these medicines from just about anywhere, but also casts a pall of gloom over tens of thousands of chemists staring at loss of sales.

Queries emailed to the Union health ministry remained unanswered.