Spurious drugs in India

Spurious drugs in India Fake drugs constitute 25% of domestic medicines market in India: ASSOCHAM New Delhi, March 11, 2017: Spurious drugs are mainly the products which are deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled and manufactured to mislead and misrepresent the patients by concealing their identity, source of manufacture and its content to profiteer on the popularity of fast moving branded or generic medicines. It may or may not contain the active ingredients in the manner mentioned on the label. Fake drugs were found to be available as popular medicines like Crocin, Voveran, Betadine, injections of calcium and syrups like Cosavil which are fake, counterfeit or substandard. Padma Shri Awardee Dr K K Aggarwal, National President Indian Medical Association (IMA) and President Heart Care Foundation of India (HCFI) and Dr RN Tandon – Honorary Secretary General IMA in a joint statement said, “What drives trade in fake drugs is lack of adequate regulations, shortage of drug inspectors and a lack of lab facilities to check purity of drugs, adds the paper. It says the other key factors include storages of spurious drugs by the chemists, weaknesses in drug distribution system, lack of awareness among consumers and lack of law enforcement.” Other than the NCR, concentration of fake drugs was found to be present in Bahadurgarh, Ghaziabad, Aligarh, Bhiwadi, Ballabhgarh, Sonepat, Hisar and Punjab. Agra is also increasingly becoming a hub for fake drugs in India, as per ASSPCHAM report. “According to a World Health Organisation report, every year about one million people die globally due to spurious drugs. Keeping that in mind, India must not lag behind in taking stringent measures to stamp out the counterfeit drugs. Authentication solutions would be a step forward.”, adds Dr K K Aggarwal. Law: Drug shall seem to be spurious if it falls within the definition as per Chapter IV, Sec. 17B of the D&C Act: • If it is manufactured under a name which belongs to another drug; or • If it is imitation of or is a substitute for another drug or resembles another drug in a manner likely to deceive or bears upon it or upon its label or container the name of another drug unless it is plainly and conspicuously marked so as to reveal its true character and its lack of identity with such other drug; or • If the label or container bears the name of an individual or company purporting to be manufacturer of the drug; which individual or company is fictitious or does not exist; or • If it has been substituted wholly or in part by another drug or substance; or • If it purports to be the product of a manufacturer of whom it is not truly a product.