Beware! Medicines you purchase from open market bear no ‘quality’ approval

Substandard drugs’ haul in Jammu: PART-I

Batches approved by companies initially, but Retailers aren’t issued any certificate of quality

JAMMU: Availability of quality medicines is a basic right of every individual but unfortunately with involvement of certain unscrupulous elements in this trade this is being violated on a larger scale as both private retail outlets in the open market as well as medical stores being run in the government hospitals are reportedly flooded with substandard and duplicate drugs, which are posing grave risk to the human lives, mostly the patients.

If sources are to be believed, this illegal trade is being run by a huge mafia today and it is very difficult to break this unholy nexus as senior government officials at the helm of affairs are allegedly involved in it.
Interestingly, the people suffering with different ailments, who purchase such medicines and injections etc from the open market or medical stores, remain unaware of their quality and unintentionally, fall in this trap as despite consuming these medicines for a longer duration they find it ineffective and then starts an unending cycle of replacement prescriptions.

All the medicines purchased from a retailer or from any other medical store, remain unchecked as far as quality parameters are concerned because as claimed by a retailer all medicines, which are supplied for sale by any big or small pharmaceutical company, remain properly tested by the manufacturing company itself at the initial level but later when they are procured and sold by the retailer the same is not guaranteed by any one, as they (retailers) are not provided with any valid document on this account by the manufacturing company.

There is another lacunae in this trade, which exposes a major lapse on the part of concerned authorities, that the medicines, which are sold in private medical stores established within the hospitals, remain out of the preview of Jammu & Kashmir Medical Supplies Corporation Limited (JKMSCL), which is otherwise responsible for quality control on those drugs and injections etc, which are provided to the patients in the hospitals, especially in the emergency and other wards.

But for that matter, there is no provision to check the quality of all those drugs, injections etc purchased by the patients admitted in the hospitals from the medical stores opened in the hospitals with the sole permission of the concerned higher authorities.

Pertinently, JKMSCL is a fully owned Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) of Jammu & Kashmir Government, which has the mandate for procurement and supply of quality drugs, medicines, surgical items and sutures to Government run health institutions in the State.

However, reliable sources in the pharmaceutical trade informed The News Now that the Multi-National Companies (MNCs) as well as Indian manufacturers in pharmaceutical trade strictly follow Code of Conduct (CC) and get their analytical report of the batch of a particular drug approved by the Drug Control Department initially and only then the same is dispatched for sale in the open market.

“We procure drugs as per our requirement and the same is sold as ensured by the pharmaceutical companies,” they said, adding, “We don’t get any certificate with batches we procure as a mark of proof of quality of the product.”

When contacted for his comments over the issue, Inderjeet’s--Managing Director, JKMSCL-- cell phone remained continuously busy and couldn’t be reached. Even after two days, he was unapproachable as on various attempts he appears to have put his mobile on ‘call divert’ mode.

Besides, Lotika Khajuria, Drug Controller, J&K, who is presently in Srinagar with Darbar Move, was also not available for her point of view on the issue.
Updated On 9/20/2018 11:31:56 AM