SRINAGAR, May 5:
Drugs Controller General of India G N Singh today admitted that evaluation of medicines in Jammu and Kashmir is “not done properly”, but maintained that the centre was serious about curbing procurement and sale of spurious drugs in the State.
“Evaluation of drugs is not done properly, but we will take steps to check spurious drugs,” Singh told reporters here before leaving for New Delhi.
Singh said the centre is making “concerted efforts” to check the quality and efficacy of drugs in the State.
“We are very serious and are making concerted efforts to check for the quality, safety and efficacy of drugs in the State especially in Kashmir valley. Central Government is fair… Our team has clear directions from the centre to check for any spurious drugs in the State,” he said.
Singh said if there are any fake drugs, they will be “thrown out” and people responsible will be “jailed”.
He said the Pharmacy Act is not being “uniformly implemented” and assured changes will be made to make it “more effective” and “at par with the rest of the country”.
“We will make sure that medicines save lives and not take them,” he said.
Singh said a modern drug testing laboratory will be set up in the State and all facilities will be provided to curb the sale of spurious drugs.
“We will set up a state-of-the-art lab for testing here. And till that, we are going to provide facilities for checking the drugs in other labs and provide faster reports,” he said.
Singh said an effective drug regulation mechanism will be put in place at the national level and streamline the procurement mechanism in the State as well.
“I have talked to the state drug officials on strengthening drug regulation mechanism. We will see that a proper system for procurement be put in place. We will not leave any stone unturned,” he said.
He said the “lack of proper and factual information not trickling down” was the reason for widespread protests over the issue and announced a “stakeholders meet” at the end of this month so that feedback is taken from all quarters.
Kashmir has been rocked by protests over the sale of spurious drugs. The scam came to light when laboratory tests revealed that an anti-biotic supplied to various hospitals contained zero amount of Amoxycillin against the claimed 500 milligramme and other tests showed traces of particulate matter in some medicines. (PTI)
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