|
While the drug control department in West Bengal is stepping up operations to combat the problem of spurious and counterfeit drugs, Joydeep Sarkar, the general secretary of the Kolkata based pharma trade body, All India Chemists and Distributors Federation (AICDF), has alleged that most of the counterfeit and spurious drugs coming to West Bengal are from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
Along with, a large number of substandard drugs are coming to the state from Haryana. These north Indian states are the hub of spurious and counterfeit drugs which are mostly manufactured in Baddi and Solan based companies, he alleged.
According to Joydeep, these counterfeit and adulterated drugs are becoming a real threat to the health of the people, so all stakeholders have to become more vigilant. He said the offenders are duplicating the QR codes and selling the medicines through computer generated bills as a mark of authenticity. He added that the counterfeiters could easily do malpractices with the QR codes, and that is what is happening in interstate medicine business.
He said malpractices start when the manufacturing companies enforce targets of monthly turnover to their employees. Sample medicines are sold to hospitals or wholesalers by the company representatives, and for their crimes the manufacturers are also responsible. Joydeep said the manufacturers do not provide batchwise ‘Laboratory Test Reports’ (LTR) to the distributors along with the consignment.
Further, he suggests that the enforcement agencies in every state should monitor the withdrawal of expired drugs from the rack of the medical stores. Many companies are not willing to call back the expired medicines. Similarly, the government should come forward to put an end to the system of offering discounts on MRPs. Several marketing companies and manufacturing companies offer huge discounts to wholesalers and retailers. This helps for malpractices, he said.
He said these largescale malpractices are happening in West Bengal drug market because it is the border state, from there the falsified medicines are passing to bordering countries.
Responding to the comments of the AICDF leader, the president of the Bihar Drugs and Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (BDPMA) Sanjiv Rai dismissed the statement with scorn, and said the allegations are simply idiotic. He said no licensed manufacturer from Bihar is doing direct marketing to West Bengal. “This allegation is baseless and an attempt to malign the image of Bihar pharma industry. Bihar is now gaining strength in the production of drugs and medical devices,” he added.
The president of the Uttar Pradesh Drug Manufacturers Association (UPDMA) Prashanth Bhatia said there is no chance of any kind of fake medicines being manufactured in the state of Uttar Pradesh. He said the counterfeit drugs circulated in West Bengal might be from other states, but not from UP. “Last year we had an incident of counterfeit drugs in Saharanpur, but soon the authorities took action and addressed the problem”. Bhatia said, no counterfeit drug is manufactured in UP and no company is sending such falsified products to any state.
Ajay Sahu, a manufacturer in Jharkhand, said there are very few companies in Jharkhand and they are manufacturing only quality drugs. He said the counterfeit drugs found in West Bengal might have been manufactured there itself.
Meanwhile, the Joint Drug Controller in Jharkhand, Sumanta Kumar Tiwari, said Lucknow, Agra and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, Patna and Gaya in Bihar, and Kolkata, Siliguri and Asansol in West Bengal happen to be feeder markets for high volume drugs and medical devices. Most likely, these markets are sourcing lookalike, counterfeit and spurious drugs from various sources.
R L Sharma, president of the Haryana Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (HPMA) has denied the allegation and said that these statements are made by traders in West Bengal without any proof. He said HPMA is periodically organising awareness classes on quality issues for the members of the association, and no substandard drug is manufactured by any company. He said if any company is violating any provision of the drug rules, the association will also take action against such companies.
The spokesperson of the Bengal Chemists and Druggists Association, SR Choudhury, said the arrested wholesaler in Kolkata got the counterfeit drugs from Patna in Bihar.
|