Jammu, Jan 12: State Cabinet today approved the much delayed Drug Policy for Jammu and Kashmir, paving way for streamlining the medicine procurement and checking the influx of spurious drugs in the State.
The approval was given during a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah at Civil Secretariat on Thursday.
Sources said that in absence of any rules and guidelines, the enforcement agencies were unable to curb the sale of the spurious drugs, as they were feeling handicapped to act against the powerful lobby of companies and distributors, who have allegedly monopolized the trade in Jammu and Kashmir.
Sources said that policy will give greater powers to enforcement agencies to check the sale and stocking of spurious drugs, a major menace in Jammu and Kashmir.
“For last six decades, J&K did not have any specific drug policy to control the influx of illegal drugs. At the moment about 348 drugs have been listed by the government for sale in the State, but pharma companies are selling close to 400 varieties of medicines in J&K. The new policy will allow monitoring pharma companies that are flooding the state markets with their products without any check”, Health Minister Sham Lal Sharma told Greater Kashmir.
Sharma said that now the doctors are required to prescribe medicines on the basis of salt name and not on the trade name of a drug manufacturing company.
“It will be beneficial for the people as doctors will not be able to favour any specific company. They need to specify the salt names. It will also give more powers to the enforcement agencies”, Sharma said.
Sources said that the policy will also pave way for an effective mechanism to deal with the drug trade by virtue of strengthening of the Drugs Controller Organisation with intelligence and legal cells and a proper surveillance system.
It is pertinent to mention here that the draft policy was ready for more than a year now, but so far because of internal bickering within the Health Department, its final approval was getting delayed despite being taken up in the Cabinet at least three times.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:00:00 IST