NEW DELHI, July 31:
Senior Congress member Anand Sharma on Wednesday asked the government to come out with a law to regulate medical devices amid the controversy over faulty hip implants manufactured by a major US pharma company.
During the Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha, Sharma said in the last one decade a large number of patients in India as well as in other countries have received faulty implants in particular hip implants.
The hip implants “made by” US pharma major Johnson and Johnson have caused trauma, sever infections, blood poisoning due to cobalt and chromium leaks, he said, adding that some patients also suffered organ failure and died.
Sharma said two of the implants were banned by the USFDA and Australian regulators way back in 2010.
“But this was the year, when because of weak regulatory laws in India and flawed presentations, they were allowed entry in the Indian market and after that a large number of patients have suffered,” he said.
He further said that in the United States, the same pharma company has accepted to give over USD 1 billion as compensation.
The Indian government had appointed a committee which recommended Rs 20 lakh compensation to about 4,000 patients.
Sharma noted that the company said that only 66 patients have been identified or located.
“My submission here is that once the products were withdrawn globally how could they enter the Indian market,” he said, and asked the government to bring a law to regulate medical devices in the country.
In his mention, RJD member Ahmad Ashfaque Karim suggested that quota for Rajya Sabha MPs to recommend admissions of students in Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) should be raised from the current 10.
To support his point, Karim said a Lok Sabha MP, who has a quota of 10, makes recommendations of admissions in KV in a particular area, but a Rajya Sabha MP can make recommendation in any KV across the state.
BJP’s Vijay Pal Singh Tomar raised the issue of shortage of medical facilities in Western Uttar Pradesh and demanded setting up of an extension of AIIMS in the area. (PTI)
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