NAME:- MANSI THAKARDAS BELANI

ENROLLMENT NUMBER:- 224030491001

ROLL NUMBER:- 02
BATCH:- A
TOPIC:- COMMUNITY PHARMACY PRACTICE
STANDARDS : GLOBAL Vs. INDIAN
SCENARIO
SUBMITTED TO:- NILAM MAM
SUBJECT:- COMMUNITY PHARMACY AND
MANAGEMENT (CPM)
SUBJECT CODE:- DP202TP
ACADEMIC YEAR:- 2023-24
COURSE:- SECOND YEAR DIPLOMA
PHARMACY
 Community Pharmacy Practice Standards : Global Vs. Indian Scenario

Contents
ABSTRACT:-................................3
INTRODUCTION:-.......................5
COMMUNITY PHARMACIST:-.....7
PHARMACY REGULATIONS:-......8
IMAGE OF COMMUNITY
PHARMACIST:-.........................10
COMMUNITY PHARMACY AND
AVAILABILITY OF MEDICINE:....11
CONCLUSION:-.........................13

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 Community Pharmacy Practice Standards : Global Vs. Indian Scenario

ABSTRACT:-

Pharmacy is a multidisciplinary profession,

which connects health sciences with chemical
sciences and aims to ensure the safe and
effective use of pharmaceuticals. A community
pharmacy is one, which is not owned (or
operated) by a publicly traded company.
Community pharmacies are pharmacist-owned,
privately-held businesses in varying practice
settings.

They include single-store operations,

pharmacist-owned multiple store locations,
franchise, compounding, long term-care (LTC),
speciality, and supermarket pharmacy
operation. In developed countries, community
pharmacy is positioning in top second contrast

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 Community Pharmacy Practice Standards : Global Vs. Indian Scenario

with alternate professions. In developing

countries including India just 10% of the entire
populace of drug specialist works in community
pharmacies, while in sub- developing countries
like Bangladesh, only of aggregate personnel of
drug specialists are working as a community
drug specialist. In this review, an attempt was
made to summarize and calculate the current
scenario and future perspective of community
pharmacy as well as community pharmacist in
various developed, developing and sub-
developing countries of the world.

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 Community Pharmacy Practice Standards : Global Vs. Indian Scenario

INTRODUCTION:-

India is a developing nation that is home to

over 1.1 billion people. Rapidly growing, the
country accounts for 2.4% of the world’s
surface but is home to 16.7% of the world’s
population. Throughout its 28 states and 7
union territories, 22 national languages have
been recognised and upwards of 400 mother
tongues and 800 different dialects is in
common use. The genesis of community
pharmacy practice in India can be traced back
to British India when allopathic drugs were
introduced and were made available through
drug stores towards the end of the nineteenth
century. During the colonial period, the
pharmacy vocation remained business oriented
and those trained to sell drugs were called drug
sellers or sometimes dispensers. The pharmacy
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 Community Pharmacy Practice Standards : Global Vs. Indian Scenario

practice scenario and especially community

pharmacy practice during pre-independence
era was highly unregulated and there were no
restrictions on the practice of pharmacy in
India. The practice of prescribing and
dispensing was normally a function performed
by doctors. In addition, most doctors trained
their clinic assistants to dispense medicines and
assist in the compounding of medicinal
preparations. The assistants were popularly
known as “compounders”, whose status,
functions and duties were ill defined and
improperly understood.

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 Community Pharmacy Practice Standards : Global Vs. Indian Scenario

COMMUNITY PHARMACIST:-

A community pharmacy, often referred to as

retail pharmacy or retail drug outlets, is places
where medicines are stored and dispensed,
supplied or sold. The general population usually
calls community pharmacies “medical stores.”
Pharmacists working in the community practice
setting are either diploma pharmacists or
graduate pharmacists with B. Pharm degrees.
Throughout this paper the word “Pharmacist”
has been used to describe both types.
Pharmacists are registered under the clause (i)
and section (2) of the Pharmacy Act 2 1948,
and their presence is legally required during the
dispensing and selling of medicines according
to Rule 65(15) of the Drugs And Cosmetics
Rules 1945.

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 Community Pharmacy Practice Standards : Global Vs. Indian Scenario

PHARMACY REGULATIONS:-

After the enforcement of provisions of the

Pharmacy Act 1948, pharmacists working in
India must have a pharmacist registration
certificate issued by the state in which they
wish to practice. To obtain a registration
certificate, the prospective pharmacist must
acquire the minimum diploma (D. Pharm.) from
a pharmacy institute that is recognised by the
Pharmacy Council of India (PCI). Both D. Pharm.
And B. Pharm. Holders are allowed to practice
in any sector of pharmacy. However, the B.
Pharm. Course was designed in such a way as
to satisfy the requirements of the
pharmaceutical industry, drug control
laboratories and drug regulatory bodies. The D.
Pharm. course was developed to satisfy the
requirements of hospitals and medical stores.

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 Community Pharmacy Practice Standards : Global Vs. Indian Scenario

This is supported by the fact that diploma

pharmacists are not considered appropriate for
positions within the pharmaceutical industry
and B. Pharm. (graduate) pharmacists are not
in significant numbers in community
pharmacies and in other practice settings,
probably due to lower salary as compared with
industrial positions.

The community pharmacists who actually

manage pharmacies today are mostly D. Pharm.
Holders (diploma pharmacists). The D. Pharm.
(Table 1) involves a minimum of 2 years of
study besides practical training of 500 hours
spread over a period of 3 months in a hospital
or community pharmacy. Once qualified, most
of these pharmacists receive little additional
training and there is no exposure to up-to-date
information. However, prior to 1984, persons

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 Community Pharmacy Practice Standards : Global Vs. Indian Scenario

without any pharmacy educational

qualifications were able to register their names
as pharmacists in the First Register of the
pharmacy act, as long as they had five years of
experience in the compounding and dispensing
of drugs in a hospital or a clinic.

IMAGE OF COMMUNITY
PHARMACIST:-

The public perception of community pharmacy

and the pharmacist is very weak. The general
population considers community pharmacists
as drug traders and obviously not better than
the general store owners. Consumers and
patients consider a visit to the medical store to
purchase drugs in much same way they
consider a visit to a grocery to buy food items.
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 Community Pharmacy Practice Standards : Global Vs. Indian Scenario

The educated people consider the retail

pharmacist as a person who has acquired a
drug licence to supply the medicines or a
grocer who deals in medicines. They think
anyone in our country can open a stationary
shop and a medical store (i.e. pharmacy) also.

COMMUNITY PHARMACY AND

AVAILABILITY OF MEDICINE:

The community (retail) pharmacy sector is the

prime source of medicines for both ambulatory
and hospitalized patients (minimum stock in
many hospitals). The medicines manufactured
by pharmaceutical companies are made
available to the community pharmacy level
through their distributor or clearing and
forwarding agent. In many developing
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 Community Pharmacy Practice Standards : Global Vs. Indian Scenario

countries, private community pharmacies are

often seen as a source of inexpensive medical
care. India is of no exception.

Private pharmacies are often the first and only

source of health care for a majority of patients
in developing countries12. During the early
period the diploma courses were mostly run by
Government medical colleges. Since the 1980’s
there has been phenomenal growth of private
institutions offering D. Pharm. Courses.

In nutshell, India faces massive challenges in

providing health care for its vast and growing
population. Despite many barriers, community
pharmacy services are central to the safe and
effective medicines management in advancing
health. With rapidly occurring changes in the
health care delivery and growing patient
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 Community Pharmacy Practice Standards : Global Vs. Indian Scenario

expectations, it is hoped that community

pharmacy practice will change accordingly.

CONCLUSION:-

In India, consumers’ (or patients) expectations

from community pharmacists are that the
medication should be effective, safe, and
affordable. Other expectations from Indian
pharmacists would be to dispense the drugs
according to the rules with proper advice on
how and when the medicines should be taken,
and what to do in the case of adverse drug
reactions as well as the provision of advice on
common ailments. However, it is an undeniable
fact that the community pharmacist has failed
to provide all these patient oriented services.
Perhaps our curriculum of D. Pharm., revised

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 Community Pharmacy Practice Standards : Global Vs. Indian Scenario

way back in 1991 has failed to change its focus

from the preparative and compounding
pharmacy towards a focus on patient care.
Nonetheless, the introduction of the Doctor of
Pharmacy (Pharm. D.) programme recently in
India may not help the community pharmacy
sector and apprehension has been raised
regarding the utilization of this course for
international status and a tool to serve the US
pharmacist workforce shortage. In nutshell,
India faces massive challenges in providing
health care for its vast and growing population.
Despite many barriers, community pharmacy
services are central to the safe and effective
medicines management in advancing health.
With rapidly occurring changes in the health
care delivery and growing patient expectations,
it is hoped that community pharmacy practice
will change accordingly.

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