KARACHI, March 26: Sindh Health Minister Syed Sardar Ahmed on Monday asked health officials to carry out a survey of medicine and chemist shops in the province at the earliest.

A spokesman for the provincial health minister told Dawn that the minister was discussing the issue of fake and spurious medicines and any possible role of retail and wholesale medical stores at a meeting attended by Special Secretary Dr Abdul Majid and others.

The purpose of a fresh survey is to know about the authenticity of store owners, besides having complete data about druggists and chemists in Karachi as well as other parts of the province, the spokesman added, saying that the minister wanted that stores should be run in line with the drug rules of the country.

The minister observed that there was a need to motivate people to also procure receipts against every single purchase of medicines, which would help keep track of medicine suppliers and eliminate chances of fake medicine marketing.

The meeting was told that there was an impression that licenses had been issued to a large number of drug stores, without verifying authenticity of the applicant, said a source attending the meeting.

In the meantime a representative of Pakistan Chemists and Druggists Association, Shakil Nagar, told Dawn that the problem of fake medicines could be addressed only when there was a change in the attitude right from the level of the government to medicine retailers in the urban and remote areas.

He said that druggists and chemists were major stakeholders, yet they had been ignored so far.

“We have been urging the authorities to ensure compliance of the Federal Drug Act, 1976, in letter and spirit and also (to) make the industrialists work under some code of conduct,” he added, saying that raw materials for preparation should not be made available in the open market.

He said that medicines should be sold at retail shops strictly under physicians’ and doctors’ prescriptions. In addition to keeping a copy of the prescription with them, doctors should also issue prescriptions in duplicate so that patients could leave a copy for record purposes of the shops.

He reminded that efforts to eliminate medicine wholesalers would not prove feasible as they functioned under an authority letter similar to those issued to distributors of pharmaceutical companies. If wholesalers are blamed for marketing fake or spurious medicines, then why not the distributors who are also responsible for bulk supply of medicines, he questioned.

To another question Mr Nagar said that the Sindh governor should review his decision pertaining to imposition of ban on issuance of new licences for medical stores.

In order to control the sale of fake drugs, Sindh Governor Dr Ishrat-ul-Ibad Khan at a meeting on Saturday had ordered officials concerned to suspend the issuing of licences for new medical stores till the time a relevant strategy was finalized and authenticated, said a source.

However, any practical move towards the implementation of the governor’s order could not be seen on the ground on Monday. Senior officials, both at provincial and city government’s health department, confided that practical measures could not be taken due to the non-availability of official minutes of the meeting in question.