ISLAMABAD, March 29: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the federal watchdogs of medicines’ quality to reply to a private complaint that spurious drugs were being sold in the country.

In a suo motu action, the Supreme Court asked the chairman of Quality Control Board, the federal secretary and director- general health to submit details of the drug cases registered in the country when it takes up the complaint of Dr Shamsuz Zaman Soomro, received by the human rights cell of the court on April 10.

A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice M. Javed Buttar is hearing the complaint.

The apex court through a notice asked Quality Control Chairman Ahmed Jan to produce complete details of the cases registered in 2005 under the Drug Act, 1976, and the number of persons challaned for counterfeiting.

The court also asked Health Secretary Anwar Mehmood and Director-General Dr Majid Rajput to give details as to how many drug courts were working in the country and the rate of disposal of cases by them.

In his application, Dr Soomro had complained about “Ceftriaxone Sodium” being produced by Robins and Lyods Pharma. A specimen of batch No 130 of the product was also preserved by the complainant which he claimed, had bought for Rs70 against its original price of Rs495.

A quality control report, however, stated that it was a misbranded product but not spurious while the health ministry also issued a show-cause notice to the two pharmaceutical companies.

“Misbranding is also a crime under the Drugs Act”, the chief justice observed, adding that a pharmaceutical firm could be tried for such offence in a drug court.

“This is one single example but we know that there are hundreds of spurious drugs in the market but the authorities concerned are showing criminal negligence by not checking heinous adulteration,” the chief justice observed.

“People are dying but no one seems to be moved for reasons known to everyone,” he added.

Multinational companies offer gratification to selected doctors and arrange foreign visits just to oblige them so that they recommend their products, he said, observing that the trend was not in public interest in any way.

There was no law in the country to control the Unani Ayurvedic medicines which were available in general stores, even with street vendors. But the authorities remained silent spectators, deplored the chief justice.

When Quality Control Board Chairman Ahmed Jan was asked whether any study was ever conducted on the ratio of drug adulteration, he cited findings of a quality control survey which confirmed 0.4 per cent adulteration in the country.

The chief justice, however, rejected the claim and said: “I assume that this rate must be 25 per cent. Don’t you know that even unbranded medicines are being given at major government hospitals.”

He cited one of his own judgments in Quetta some 16 years ago. There was a case, he said, regarding an ordinary “paracetamol” which was being sold with an identical name. When it was sent for laboratory test, the findings proved that the medicine comprised only lactose (glucose) and starch without trace of any medicinal base. Such a product has a harmful effect on human body in a particular disease, he said.

On functional structure of quality control, the chairman said there were 12 federal drug inspectors, four each in Karachi and Lahore, two in Peshawar and one each in Islamabad and Quetta. Beside there are 144 provincial drug inspectors.

With such a big force, the chief justice lamented that the prevalence of spurious drug amounted to failure of the state authorities and now people preferred Indian medicines just because they were affordable and more efficacious.