A large section of the public could be naively consuming spurious medication for a whole slew of ailments ranging from hypertension and diabetes to epilepsy, according to Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) officials who conducted State-wide surprise checks at medical stores, public health centres, warehouses of distributors of pharmaceutical products, and stockists of prescription drugs on Friday.
Director General, VACB, Venugopal. K. Nair and Additional Director N. Sankar Reddy ordered the operation code-named ‘tablet.’
Anti-corruption enforcers also inspected district offices of the State Drugs Control Department, the agency tasked to tackle the menace of spurious and adulterated drugs by regulating the manufacturing, sales, and distribution of pharmaceutical and cosmetic products.
They said the inordinate, and perhaps purposeful, delay on the part of drug controllers in getting and acting on the test results of drug samples collected for chemical examination from manufacturers, distributors, and retailers paved the way for the large-scale sale of spurious drugs in the State.
In one telling case, the VACB found that a drug controller had collected the sample of a commonly prescribed drug for hypertension from a medical store. He sent it for chemical examination. The examination result, which arrived eight months later, said the drug contained spurious and banned chemical components.
The drug controller issued a notice to the medical store. The retailer pleaded that he had sold the entire stock of the drug already and he would not stock it again. The officer closed the case.
VACB officials said the pattern was seen throughout the State and the ‘shoddy enforcement’ of the Drugs and Cosmetic Act, the Drugs Prices Control Order, Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act, Kerala Drugs and Other Store Unlawful Possession Act, and the Kerala Poison Rules had become ‘a major vehicle’ for Government corruption.
The VACB found that at least two pharmaceutical distributors in the State stocked large quantities of lethal methanol, alcohol made deliberately unfit for human consumption, without licence and in violation of the State’s poison rules.
They said there could be more such illegal hoarders of denatured spirit and there is the possibility that the lethal substance could be illegally diverted for human consumption during festivals such as Onam.
The VACB also found that corrupt doctors at scores of rural public health centres had a stake in local medical stores and that they helped their business partners by not availing themselves of a whole range of medicines available at subsidised rates from State-run pharmacies. They forced the public to buy prescription drugs of dubious quality at higher rates from private stores.
The agency also found that renewal and issuance of licences for operating medical stores was a major avenue of corruption. Investigators found hundreds of pending applications in various drug controllers’ offices. Investigators also found several drug enforcers had more money on their person than what they had declared when they entered office.
via The Hindu Newspaper http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/kerala/article3751276.ece
No comments:
Post a Comment