KARACHI, Feb 3: In view of contamination found in an isosorbide-5-mononitrate preparation used to prevent or reduce the occurrence of angina, federal drug inspectors posted here have started collecting samples of similar products from other factories.

The Drug Control Administration’s Deputy Director General Dr Shahid H. Pechuho told Dawn the purpose of the sample collection was to have a comparative study of isosorbide mononitrate medicines and ensure that they were free of contamination.

He said about 20 samples had been collected from five pharmaceutical industries and the tests would also help evaluate the quality of raw material imported from different countries and used in such preparations.

He said under the good manufacturing practices it was the obligation of the manufacturers to ensure the standard and sty the properties of the chemicals they imported but his team also wanted to assess their quality at the source, which was common in many cases, in order to avert any other health crisis.

The central drug testing laboratory declared on Thursday that one sample of isosorbide-5-mononitrate tablets manufactured by a factory in Karachi and sent for tests after the recent Lahore hospital deaths contained a material used to treat malaria.

The laboratory also tested a sample of stock solution collected during a search of the factory on Wednesday as positive for the anti-malarial Pyrimethamine.

Following the declaration of the medicine as adulterated and substandard, federal inspectors of drugs and some other officials of the Central Drugs Laboratory held a meeting on Friday with senior officers of investigation agencies and discussed actions that could be taken against the manufacturing firm for contravention of the Drugs Act of 1976, sources said.

However, the role of federal drug inspectors appears limited in the absence of a central licensing authority and registration board.