TN PTA to hold refresher course for member pharmacists to update knowledge about new molecules and drug laws

Saturday, July 1, 2023

As part of the membership drive, the Tamil Nadu Pharmaceutical Traders Association (TN PTA), an organisation of retail chemists, will hold a Refresher Course for member pharmacists working in medical shops at various locations in the state from August onwards.

The association feels that since the practice of pharmacy is a complex profession requiring latest information about new drugs and banned drugs, and also about new provisions of the drug act and the rules, a training programme is necessary to update the knowledge with the pharmacists. Each course will admit a maximum 500 members and if the number of chemists is more than five hundred, there will be two batches or the additional members will be admitted into the nearby district programme, said T Natarajan, president of the TN PTA.
 
According to him, the course syllabus will contain provisions of the pharmacy act, drugs and cosmetics act, patient counseling, drug store management, chapters on drug interactions, drug-food interaction, new drug and safety approach, duties of pharmacists and prescription handling. The course will be a one-day programme and it will be in the form of a training workshop.
 
The trainers will be selected from academic side, regulatory side and from pharma industry and trade. The association will seek the support of the TN pharmacy council and the organisations of registered pharmacists. All the participants will be given certificates for attending the Refresher Course. Natarajan is also a registered pharmacist who said more chemists are joining the association from the southern part of the state.  
 
Currently, TN PTA has district committees in 12 districts and 10 more districts will constitute committees in the first week of July. The office-bearers of the association will spend one week in Madurai and Thirunelveli to attract more chemists into the group. Hopefully, by the end of August this year, all the districts in the state will have TN PTA committees.
 
Talking to Pharmabiz, Natarajan said a training programme of this kind will be conducted in July for the members of the independent district committee of chemists and druggists in Thiruvarur district (Thiruvarur CDA) by its president Mannargudi Ramachandran who was previously the president of the TN CDA. In the programme, Natarajan has been invited to deliver a speech on ‘the organizational activities of the chemist association in Tamil Nadu’. He said this programme is a good platform for him to take inspiration to hold such workshops for his association members.
 
This is for the first time a pharmaceutical trade association in Tamil Nadu takes interest to hold training programmes for working pharmacists in the medical shops. Traders across the state have welcomed the initiative being taken by TN PTA for the interest of the members. The association is purely a body of retailers.
 
Recently, in all the southern states in India the pharma retailers are forming separate associations excluding wholesalers. It is alleged that the increase in the number of medical shops, discount pharmacies and Jan Aushadhi stores is not affecting the businesses of the wholesalers, whereas it hits the very foundation of the retail shops. In every state the retailers’ associations are working independently.

PHARMABIZ.com