KARACHI, Sept 10: The government and drug authorities have failed to eliminate spurious and counterfeit drugs and medicines business in the city, which also contribute to medical treatment failures, a senior office-bearer of the Pakistan Medical Association says.
Referring to a latest news report that a federal investigation agency in a raid seized spurious life-saving drugs worth Rs15 million from the possession of a local marketer, general secretary of the PMA’s Karachi chapter Dr Samrina Hashmi says the menace of fake and counterfeit medicines in the country can be eliminated only if the government makes it mandatory for pharmacists to sell medicines on prescription from a registered practitioner.
The seized medicines were reportedly imported and marketed here with changed labels and variations in relevant details.
Dawn has learnt that poor vigilance and prosecution system that encourages the malpractice. Poor implementation of hospital wastes disposal rules is also a reason for availability of empties of major and hot selling life-saving injections -- the fact recently emerged in the raids conducted by the provincial drug inspectors in the city.
People spend 77 per cent of their household budget on medicines, Dr Hashmi says, regretting that half of the drugs are fake and unfit for human consumption. According to her, an effective and authenticated system to monitor manufacturing of drugs and credibility of medical stores would be the vital steps to control the availability of counterfeit medicines in markets.
She requests the government to set up a committee comprising stake-holders, including representatives of pharmaceutical industries, NGOs, consumer associations and government officials, which should be entrusted with the task of keeping vigil over quality of medicines. She is of the view that proper enforcement of the existing laws related to drug manufacturing and sale of counterfeit medicines can serve as major deterrent to elements involved in this heinous crime.
Besides, the PMA office-bearer cites presence of thousands of quacks across the country for the unchecked availability of counterfeit medicines at stores. The government should focus its attention on phasing out quackery from the country, she observes.
She also calls for launching of an awareness campaign on electronic media under the supervision and control of the government. In this regard, she says, public should not buy medicines without a proper prescription and should ask for a receipt for the purchased material which would help eliminate chances of selling of spurious medicines.
Pakistan is identified as a country where spurious and counterfeit medicines are produced and this has damaged the country’s image, the doctor says, stressing that medical stores in the country should only be run by qualified pharmacists.
According to experts, a counterfeit medicine is one that is deliberately and fraudulently mislabelled with respect to identity and/or source, which can occur with both branded and generic medicines. Counterfeit medicines may include products with the correct ingredients but fake packaging, with the wrong ingredients, without active ingredients or with insufficient active ingredients.
It is estimated that 40 per cent to 50 per cent drugs in some Asian and African countries are counterfeit.