Smaller pills pack

Pills may soon be available in smaller packs from retail drug stores in India containing less than 6 or 10 tablets or even smaller each making it convenient for the consumer and affordable for their pockets.

Of late, several drug companies have increased the pack sizes of certain pills from the usual 10 tablets/capsules per packs to bigger ones containg 20 or even 30 pills in each strip.

Currently medicine strips such as Restyl 0.25 & 0.5, Zinetac 150, Rantac 150, Supractiv, Tonact 10 & 20, Becosules, Naprosyn 250, Stemetil, Omez 20,Ocid 20, Becozyme C Forte, Supradyn, 500, Crocin, Alprax 0.25 & 0.5, Sysfol, Listril, Betaloc 25 &50, Clamp 625, Moxclav 625, Chymoral Forte Plus and Imdur 30 are supplied in larger strips containing 15, 20 or even to 30 tablets in a single pack. Most of the above mentioned tablets and capsules used to be sold in strips of 10 pills earlier.

These bigger strips cause a lot of inconvenience to patients as well as retailers. While may patients consider such bigger packs either not required for them or they don’t have the funds to purchase all at one go, the retaler chemists find strip cutting often invite customer wrath as some of the crucial information regarding the manufacturing or expiry or even price could be lost while cutting them.

Chemists, for example, point out to strips of Hematrine, Nutrisan, Folvite, Autrin, Stugeron 25mg, Stugeron 75mg and Raricap which come only with bigger pack size of 20, 25, 30 and even 40.

Again in several cases tabs/caps are so placed in the strip in such a way that a strip cannot be cut easily. Mega 3, Gris OD, Antoxid, Antoxid HC, Sitcom, Harty cap and Triomega cap are some of the examples. Once they start cutting these strips, most of the time it leaves exposing /intruding into one or more tab/cap. This leads to a lot of arguments between the retailer and the customer, and is a loss to the retailer as well as the customer.There are a lot of shortcomings and dangers for the customers.

In view of this, the pharmacists have decided to put pressure on the drug makers to make the strip sizes smaller.

The pharmacist’s association in India has already approached the authorities to take up the matter with the drug manufacturers to direct the manufacturers to stop supplying large strip sizes and large pack sizes to the retailers forcing them to cut their sizes.

Recently, the government of Maharashtra has given a directive to the chemists in Mumbai to cut the strips of medicine as desired by the customers.

Protesting this, thousands of pharmacists in India have asked the authorities to take immediate steps to amend the Drugs & Cosmetics Act to make cutting of strips of medicines not mandatory.