PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has introduced a new technology, the first of its kind in the country, to facilitate analysts to carry out inspection of suspected medicines on the spot and save time and risks associated with raw material analysis.

“Since July 2022, we have tested 13,500 drugs in the main markets in Peshawar and other districts of which 372 were found spurious and 464 were substandard,” said Imranullah, the head of drug testing laboratory (DTL), Peshawar.

He said that previously they had to test all suspected samples through traditional way that consumed times as well as ingredients but the new mechanism helped them to test more samples in the shortest possible time.

“Two new vehicles purchased at Rs9 million and many equipment imported from the US at a cost of Rs18 million have been made operational last year,” said Imranullah.

KP becomes first province of country to import the modern machine

He said that the new technology, know as Raman, was an accepted spectroscopic technique both by the United States Pharmacopeia Convention (USP) and the European Pharmacopeia (EP). He said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was first province of the country to import the new technology for testing drugs.

“It is a novel technology. In foreign countries, it is used for raw material clearance and identification of narcotics at airport and borders,” said the official.

He said that a portable and small machine of Raman technology was easy to use. “It produces high spectral quality, substantiates it as a sustainable materials validation method with trusted results and we have been able to use it effectively,” he added.

Imranullah said that prior to import of the new technology, they faced a lot of difficulties in getting the suspected items from market and then testing the same. “Now we can find suspected drugs during inspections and test only them at the lab,” he added.

He said that dealers in Karkhano Market and Namak Mandi, who were in the habit of selling fake or spurious items, stopped their businesses as they knew that the new equipment would catch such items abruptly.

Dr Abbas Khan, the director general of Drug and Pharmacy Services Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said that they had to cover the whole province with 55 inspectors. It was difficult but the latest technology made the job easy and faster, he added.

“All aspects of pharmaceutical manufacturing must comply with rigorous standards to ensure consistent production of safe and effective drugs. As the pharmaceutical material supply chain continues to globalise, leading nations have imposed regulations that increase the amount of raw materials that require inspection,” he said.

Dr Abbas said that handheld Raman spectroscopy was a technique used widely as part of the pharmaceutical manufacturing process to ensure safety and efficacy of medicine including raw material identification, active pharmaceutical ingredients, excipients, nutraceuticals, pre-formulated material and packaging verification, pre- and post-clinical trial materials, chemicals and solvents and cell culture media.

Additionally, it is used for authentication of finished products, anti-counterfeit and brand security

“With the push towards 100 per cent inspection and clean manufacturing, pharmaceutical manufacturers are looking for efficient ways to reduce costs and risks associated with raw material identification, in-process analysis, finished product inspection and brand security while complying with regulatory requirements,” he said.

Dr Abbas said that traditional processes could include quality control laboratory analysis, a costly and time-consuming step, especially when productivity must be optimised with fewer resources and all without compromising quality. “We screen medicines within 1.5 minutes with the help of new technology,” he added.

He said they had been using mobile screening laboratory to ensure that the people received quality drugs. “Drugs play important part in treatment of patients. We need to ensure that sellers and manufacturers of counterfeit drugs get arrested and punished,” he added.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2023