Four pharmacies in Hyderabad have received show-cause notices after inspections by the Telangana EAGLE Force and officials of the Telangana Standards Authority for Food and Essential Drugs (TG SAFE) found alleged gaps in mandatory registers, sale bills and records for certain prescription and habit-forming medicines.
The inspections covered Al-Hamra Medical & General Store at Masab Tank, MM Medical and General Store, also identified as MED24 Pharmacy, at Mallepally, First Step Drug Mart at Tolichowki and Hayat Pharmacy at Tolichowki. A statement cited by Telangana Today said officials found regulatory deficiencies at all four establishments.
At Al-Hamra Medical & General Store, prescribed registers were not maintained or produced for certain medicines, while sale bills were also not maintained or made available during the inspection. The authorities treated the missing records as alleged violations of requirements governing the sale and documentation of medicines.
Similar deficiencies were reported at MM Medical and General Store in Mallepally. The inspection findings included issues involving prescribed registers and sale bills, according to the statement issued after the checks.
At First Step Drug Mart, officials found that the pharmacist was absent during the inspection. The Schedule H1 Drugs Register was not produced for verification, and officials also noticed discrepancies in the purchase and sale records of habit-forming medicines.
At Hayat Pharmacy in Tolichowki, the prescribed Schedule H1 and prescription registers, along with certain sale bills, were not produced for verification, the statement said. Schedule H and H1 medicines are subject to record-keeping and prescription-related controls under the applicable drug regulations.
The inspections are significant because registers and sale bills provide the regulatory trail for medicines that require prescription controls. They allow officials to examine how drugs were purchased, sold and documented by a pharmacy. The reported deficiencies concern the availability and maintenance of those records; the supplied report does not state that the establishments were found to have caused harm to patients or that any licence had already been cancelled.
Show-cause notices were issued to all four establishments following the inspections. Such notices give the establishments an opportunity to respond to the alleged violations before the authorities decide on further action. The statement did not specify the deadline for replies or identify the penalties, if any, that may follow.
Further action will be taken under the applicable provisions of the Drugs Control Administration, according to the authorities’ statement. The next stage will depend on the responses submitted by the four establishments and the findings of the department’s regulatory process.
