In the wake of a damning World Health Organisation (WHO) report last year that one out of ten medicines sold in India are fake, the Government has decided to crack down on the black sheep in the sector. To begin with, it will keep tabs on top 300 branded drugs, syrups and vials of at least 66 pharma firms, including MNCs such as lupin ltd, Cipla ltd, Dr Reddy’s lab, Novo Nordisk India Pvt ltd, Novarstis India ltd and Sun Pharma.
Under the system, a unique code and a mobile number will be printed on the top selling drugs and buyers will be advised to cross-check the genuineness of the drug with the manufacturers, said a senior official of the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI).
He said most selling brands to be identified will be based on the data provided by the market research wing of the All India organisations of chemists and druggists.
This was decided at a meeting of the Drug Technical Advisory Board (DTAB), a highest decision-making body of the Union Health Ministry. It had deliberated on the proposal to keep track of the most popular brands.
The new system aims to weed out the counterfeit drugs.
“Depending on the outcome, more brands will be covered,” the official added.
To discuss the modalities for implementing the DTAB decision, a meeting will be held with the drug manufacturers on June 25.
There have been various reports questioning the quality of drugs being sold in the Indian market as in the other countries as well.
According to the WHO, 35 per cent of the fake drugs sold all over the world comes from India and it occupies the counterfeit drug market of nearly Rs 4,000 crore. As per the report, drugs prescribed for cold and cough or a headache are mostly either fake or of poor quality.
“Substandard and falsified medicines particularly affect the most vulnerable communities,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director-General had said during the launch of the findings, a part of WHO Global Surveillance and Monitoring System for substandard and falsified medical products. The findings were released last year.
It is the first time in ten years that the WHO has published estimates on substandard and falsified medical products in low-and middle-income countries.
According to WHO, these medicines not only fail to treat or prevent diseases but can also cause serious illness or even death.
Most often, falsified medicines only come to light when they reach the retailer or the patient - it is very hard to trace them back through complex supply chains, or to prove where the criminal activity occurred, said the WHO. Counterfeit drugs are not only dangerous to patients, but they lose the pharmaceutical industry billions of pounds every year.
Yet another report submitted by the Department of Food Safety and Drug Administration, Uttar Pradesh, in 2015 said of around 5,150 drugs seized in a raid, 506 drugs were found to be fake. Apart from this, only 2,902 of these samples were found to be effective as per the standards.
The National Institute of Biologicals under the Union Health Ministry too in its study conducted across the country during 2014-2016 had collected 47,954 samples from the Government hospitals, dispensaries, and pharmacies. More drugs of poor standards were found in the Government hospitals as compared to the pharmacies in the market. “While pharmacies in the market had 3 per cent of the poor quality drugs, government hospitals had 10 per cent. There were around 0.023 and 0.059 fake drugs found in the retail outlets and Government hospitals respectively,” said the report.
According to the survey, however, there has been some improvement in the situation over the time.