The Chemists and Medicine wholesalers in Punjab will not face criminal action, on recovery of fake or sub-standard or counterfeit medicines from their possession, if the material procured from their possession is found to be legally purchased and stored under requisite

conditions.

Punjab Health Department has changed the rules of taking action against the sale of fake or sub-standard drugs in state and from now on, legal action would be initiated against the manufacturer of drugs only, if the storage and purchase process is found valid with the wholesalers and chemists.

As per the past practice, the department used to take action against the manufacturer, wholesaler and the chemists, on the recovery of sub-standard or fake drugs. Due to collective action against all the parties, they used to take a collective stand against the Health department, resulting in the failure of prosecution.

The Food and Drugs authorities fill around 2000 samples from Chemists every year and around 150 cases of sale of fake or sub-standard drugs are prosecuted in the court. But the conviction rate in these cases is negligible and the authorities deem the collective action to be a big reason of non-conviction as the parties accused help each other to topple the case.

The Chemist lobby had been demanding that they buy sealed drugs and sell them in sealed position, and when they purchase medicines on proper billing, they should not be made accused of selling sub-standard or fake medicines as they cannot check the quality of sealed medicines. There are around 13 thousand Chemists and around 850 Wholesalers of medicines in the state.

Now, as per the new rules, the drug authorities will search the premises of the Chemist and the Wholesaler on finding discrepancies with the quality of medicines. If the medicines found sub-standard are found to be procured, following norms and stored under pre-requisite conditions, then department  will not initiate any action against the people involved in the distribution network and only the manufacturer of the medicines will be prosecuted.

Confirming the change in the rules, Hussan lal, Managing Director, Punjab Health Systems Corporation said the change was aimed at punishing the real culprit in the sale of sub-standard or counterfeit drugs.

He said that it was felt that prosecuting the sellers of medicines, had been resulting in failure of prosecution in a number of cases, so now if the storage and purchase of the medicines is found correct, only the manufacturer will face legal action. It is expected to improve the conviction rate in cases of sale of fake or counterfeit drugs.