ISLAMABAD, May 16: The government on Tuesday warned a legal action and cancellation of licence if any pharmaceutical company was found manufacturing spurious drugs and ordered the retailers to remove the expired medicines from their shelves within a fortnight.

Presiding over a high-level meeting here, Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan directed the Monitoring Wing of the Ministry of Health to check the flow of spurious drugs into the market and identify their source of entry into the market.

The Supreme Court had directed the ministry through a suo motu notice to check the flow of fake medicines into the market and direct all pharmaceutical companies to check their stocks and destroy the expired medicines within 15 days. After expiry of the 15-day period, the government will launch a campaign to physically check the sale of such drugs.

From now on, the manufacturer will issue warranty on drugs to the distributor along with an authority letter, the meeting decided.

Subsequently, the distributor will sell drugs to the retailers only after showing the authority letter of the pharmaceutical company concerned.

The meeting decided that if a spurious drug was recovered from a medical store, the company which issued the warranty would be responsible for it. However, if the retailer lacked any warranty then he will have to face the legal action alone.

The meeting also approved constitution of a five-member committee to curb the practice of promoting the sale of drugs by giving financial or material benefits to the healthcare practitioners.

Medical practitioners should avoid irrational prescriptions and prescribe only those drugs which are necessary for treatment of patients, the meeting emphasised.

All the retailers and distributors are required to refrain from selling unregistered physicians samples, government property drugs and expired drugs to avoid any legal action.

The meeting decided that all drugs (except for exempted classes of drugs) should be sold only on production of prescriptions of registered medical practitioners, while the list of life-saving drugs should be displayed at all pharmacies.

The meeting decided that the pharmaceutical companies will ensure 15 per cent discount to the retailers, who should have a proper storage system.

The companies were also directed to ensure the pilfer-proof sealing of bottles by June 30 this year.

The meeting also took stock of the shortage of drugs and directed the companies to ensure regular supply of drugs in order to prevent deaths for want of drugs.

Health Secretary Anwar Mehmood, Director-General Health Dr Abdul Majid Rajput, Drug Controller Dr Farnaz Malik, representatives of Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA), Pharma Bureau, Pakistan Chemists and Druggists Association (PCDA) and Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) also attended the meeting.