PESHAWAR, Aug 17: The sale and marketing of spurious and fake drugs continues unabated in Peshawar and elsewhere in the province, thanks to the apathy of the officials concerned who are supposed to ensure availability of quality drugs.

“All sorts of drugs, such as antibiotics, analgesics, cough syrups, tranquillisers, etc., are being marketed which do not list ingredients on their packaging,” said a pharmacist.

According to him, drug markets in the city and elsewhere in the province are replete with spurious drugs, but the suppliers and dealers have managed to continue with this inhuman practice by dint of their connections with drug inspectors and health officials.

For instance, a pain-killer drug ‘diclofenac sodium’ is being sold in the market with 100 different trade-names. Their prices vary from company to company. The same drug marketed by multinational companies is available at Rs30, whereas the ones manufactured by the local pharmaceutical companies are priced at between Rs2 and Rs10.

Some of the drugs do not even carry such essential details as manufacturing and expiry date and price etc., on the stickers pasted over them.

Actually, about 400 local drug makers are unable to compete with the multinational companies as far as the quality and reliability of their products is concerned. So, they market the substandard drugs on which they offer huge profit to the retailers and ultimately capture the market.

A chemist told Dawn that the multinational companies offer them 10 to 15 per cent commission on their items, whereas on the locally produced stuff, they receive more than 50 per cent commission.

Furthermore, the local companies wait for their payment till the stock get exhausted, while the MNCs demand money right at the time of products delivery.

According to WHO’s guidelines, about 390 drugs are enough to meet the requirements of patient in any country. In Pakistan, there are 25,000 registered drugs in the market. Almost same is the number of unregistered ones.

According to pharmacists, Pakistan has a Rs40 billion drug market the lion’s share of which goes to the MNCs.