Checking whether your doctor is prescribing the right medicine based on your ailment or with an eye on personal benefit (read: commission) will soon be just a phone call away. That?s not all. You can also find out the price, availability and composition of various medicines, as well as whether the medicines you bought are genuine or spurious. All this will soon be possible with the setting up of a drug information-cum-pharmaco vigilance centre?the first of its kind in India?at Chennai.
The Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) in association with the Directorate of Drugs Control is setting up this centre at the premises of the director of drugs control in Chennai to offer information about drugs and arrest the sale of spurious drugs across the country. To be opened in the next few days, it will be replicated in various states across the country with data covering all the basic and necessary information about various drugs that are in circulation, said B Suresh, president, PCI.
Information can be accessed from the centre over the telephone as well as in person. It will also host a 24-hour help line to provide clarifications about drugs prescribed and possible alternate medicines if a prescribed drug is out of stock.
