Srinagar, Nov 19: Officials of the Drug Controller Department claim that since April this year they have conducted more than 8000 inspections in Kashmir Valley and didn’t find any chemist selling spurious drugs.
 “We have conducted 8549 inspections since April this year. We collected 545 samples and in all those samples we didn’t find any spurious drug after test,” said Nazir Ahmad Wani, Deputy Drug Controller.
 “Out of 545, only 31 were declared sub-standard. In these cases either administrative action has been taken against the culprits or prosecution has been initiated against them before the competent courts,” Wani said. “We didn’t find any spurious drug among 31 cases”.
 Wani defined spurious medicine as a drug in which active ingredient is zero percent, and said that any such drug was not found anywhere in the Valley. 
 Around 1500 pharmaceutical manufacturing companies from different states of India are operating in the state.
 J-K consumes medicines worth Rs 600 crore annually out of which drugs worth Rs 400 crore are consumed in Kashmir valley alone. Besides, about 3000 wholesalers and 5000 medicine retailers operate in the valley. In contrast, the annual government budget for the purchase of drugs is a meager Rs 72 crores.  
  “People here don’t prefer alternative medicine like AYUSH, UNANI and hence the consumption of allopathic drugs is very high,” Wani said adding that over the years Drug Controller Department has filed cases against 117 dealers in different courts for selling sub-standard medicine or violating Drug and Cosmetic Act.
 Last month in a case of State versus Prop Managing Director M/S Pharma Chemico Laboratories, special Mobile Magistrate fined M/S Pharma Chemico Rs 50,000 for manufacturing drugs of sub-standard quality. The Himachal based company had admitted the guilt.
 The officials in the Drug Controller Department describe self-medication as one of the reasons responsible for resistance to drugs in the Valley. “Once you consume drug without doctor’s prescription, it will have effects and with the passage of time medicine doesn’t work. And when medicine doesn’t work people presume spurious drugs are being sold on the market,” he said.
 He said it is doctors who prescribe medicine and so far the department has not received a single complaint from any doctor regarding the sale of spurious medicine. “Whenever you purchase medicine from anywhere, take proper receipt and purchase on doctor’s prescription. And if you think that the medicine is not working or is sub-standard, inform us. Never ever take over the counter drugs and never take drugs without proper receipt, even if you purchase a Paracetamol,” he added.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 19 Nov 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 19 Nov 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:00:00 IST