The expert committee on spurious drugs, medical devices & diagnostic centres, constituted by the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India Dr R Chidambaram to look into the issues of growing menace of spurious drugs, medical devices and the plight of diagnostic centres in the country and to suggest ways and means to tackle these issues, has submitted its report to the government, it is learnt.
Though senior officials involved in the matter confirmed that the committee has submitted its report to the government after a considerable delay, they refused to reveal the details about the committee's recommendations.
The high-powered nine-member committee, under the chairmanship of Dr PN Tandon, emeritus professor at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, was constituted early last year to find ways to tackle these burning issues. The committee was also asked to broadly look into the mess prevailing in the medical devices market in the country and to suggest ways to regulate this segment.
The committee was given nine months time to submit a detailed report on these issues that have attracted flak from different quarters. The committee was to broadly look into these issues and prepare detailed legislative and administrative guidelines for these segments which are in real mess in the country.
The constitution of an expert committee of this calibre was significant as it showed that the government was under immense pressure from different world bodies to address these health issues. There were reports appearing in the national as well as world media that pointed at India as a major source of spurious drugs in the world. The committee was given the mandate to study and analyse scientific and technical measures which are adopted in US and other advanced countries to tackle the menace of spurious drugs.
ICMR director general Dr VK Katoch, DCGI Dr Surinder Singh, well known oncology surgeon at Gangaram Hospital Dr Indraneel Mittra, famous paediatric surgeon at Teerathram Shah Hospital Dr Sudhir Krishna, chief scientific officer at Bilcare, Pune, Dr Praful Naik and MIMS editor Dr CM Gulhati are some of the members of the committee. Neeraj Sinha is the member secretary of the committee.