Some medicines may soon be available at grocery stores: Report

Medicines for common ailments such as cold, cough and flu might soon be sold at grocery stores, a report in The Economic Times says.

The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation is considering introducing a “unit dose packaging” for non-prescription medicines to lower chances of misuse or an overdose.

Contraceptive pills and analgesics such as paracetamol also qualify as over-the-counter (OTC) medicines.

A subcommittee of experts has in a report recommended adequate labelling, so that consumers can “self-diagnose,” “self-elect,” “self-administer” and know when to stop using.

The subcommittee, which is looking into over-the-counter drugs, has suggested packaging for medicines that can be sold “without prescription, have a proven safety profile, therapeutic index and (are) used for common ailments”.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the story.

The experts have suggested two separate categories– OTC1 for those sold at retail outlets and OTC2 for those sold at pharmacies, says the report viewed by The Economic Times.

India does not have a definition for OTC drugs. The subcommittee has suggested that a formulation should have been sold for at least four years for it to be considered as an OTC medicine.

“At present there are several drugs which are neither OTC nor prescription drugs. Such drugs should be examined for classifying under suitable category,” an official told the paper.

The experts have also proposed “labelling requirements”, which include a logo specifying whether a medicine is an OTC drug or an “OTC drug to be specified”.