Is former cricketer and MP Gautam Gambhir allowed to act as distributor of drugs ?

Former Cricketer and BJP leader Gautam Gambhir announced last week that people of East Delhi could get Fabiflu for free from his residence on producing their Aadhaar card and the doctor’s prescription. Days later, he further announced that his Foundation would distribute Fabiflu and oxygen cylinders across the national capital.

Fabiflu is an anti-viral drug used to treat mild-to-moderate Covid-19 disease. Over the last few weeks reports of Fabiflu and Remdivisir going out of stock emerged from various parts of Delhi and India.

It left people wondering if it was legitimate for an MP to stock up life-saving drugs for distribution ? Is there no license required for an individual to stock large quantity of drugs ? How indeed did an individual procure a large supply? And why pharmacies in East Delhi could not have sold the same medicines ? These were some of the questions raised by both opposition leaders and members of the public.

National Herald reached out to Gautam Gambhir Foundation via phone and email to ask whether the medicine distribution is a part of the Foundation’s regular work as per its registration and Articles of Association. Or whether it was just a philanthropic act by the former cricketer in his personal capacity. NH also asked about the funding and grants received from the government in the backdrop of Bollywood star Akshay Kumar donating Rs. one Crore to the Foundation.

We will update this report once we receive a response.

The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 governs the end to end process from manufacture to the sale of drugs in India and is meant to ensure that citizens have an equal and fair access to drugs and medicine. According to Government Guidelines for Good Distribution Practices for Pharmaceutical Products issued under the said Act, in order to maintain the original quality of pharmaceutical products every party involved in the distribution chain has to comply with various legal requirements related to procurement, purchasing, storage, distribution, transportation, documentation and record-keeping practices of the pharmacy goods.

The Guidelines say that only authorized persons or entities holding the appropriate license shall be entitled to import or export pharmaceutical products, and the products shall be supplied only to persons or entities which are themselves authorized to acquire such products either to act as a distributor or to sell or supply the products directly to a patient or to his or her agent. The Government guidelines further talks about the organization and management of such entities and requires that they should be free of political pressure or conflict of interests. The Guidelines lays out several other provisions regarding how to maintain quality of the products by ensuring certain types of storage facility, warehouse and so on.

In view of the Guidelines there are several questions to be raised on Gautam Gambhir’s public announcement. Firstly, Gambhir is a political leader representing the ruling party and he had initially announced the distribution for his own constituency of East Delhi. There are related questions which arise about permission, storage and accounting, which are not clear.

Responding to hoarding allegations Gambhir said in a media statement that he only had “a few hundred strips of tablets obtained from a distributor” and claimed it could not be called “hoarding”. “Is my obtaining a few strips of Fabiflu causing the shortage?” he asked.

As mentioned earlier, individuals cannot overnight start distributing drugs and medicines from their houses without valid permits and licenses. The former cricketer was silent on these issues.

What is more, if political leaders and parties take control of the distribution of medicines and other resources, is a free and fair distribution possible ? what stops them from creating an artificial shortage in some areas by selectively deciding how to supply the resources and to whom.

In a video report published by Newslaundry, a young woman Divya Jain was quoted as saying that Fabiflu was out of stock in the various pharmacies she visited, after which she went to Gambhir’s residence but was denied the medicine as she was from a different constituency.

The long queues in front of Gambhir’s residence of helpless relatives waiting for medicines seems both worrying and humiliating. Four family members of Vijay Kumar Rajpoot, residents of Laxmi Nagar, had tested positive. Speaking to Newslaundry one of them said that Fabiful would be given for only one of the four, he had been informed. He too had visited several chemists but failed to find the medicine. The Newslaundry report also mentions that pharmacists have been struggling to source the medicine from distributors. One of them said that only the agents camping outside AIIMS were able to source it.

“How do we know that Mr. Gautam Gambhir did not deliberately create a shortage to earn political points? Even if he has the stock, should he not hand it over to the hospitals or government centers? Is this not against the Drug and Cosmetics Act?” asks activist Leher Sethi, who has filed a complaint with Delhi Police against Gambhir.

“Drugs and Cosmetics Act bars anyone to sell or stock or exhibit or offer for sale or distribute the drugs except those who are licensed under the Act by the Drug Control Department such as Pharmacists etc. There is also a Kerala High Court Judgment which held that no persons other than a Registered Pharmacist can dispense medicine. Gambhir is in clear violation of the law,” she added.

Delhi Police has not yet registered an FIR.