Bangalore District Druggists and Chemists Association (BDDCA) will now circulate the list of banned drugs following a communiqué from the Karnataka drugs control department and will try to put an end to the sale of spurious and 'not of standard' quality medicines that is in circulation in the State.

Until now the periodic release of the banned list of drugs announced by the drugs control department had no impact on the retailers and wholesalers as these drugs are still available in the market. There are many traders who are unaware of the banned drug list with the result the sales of such products continue to happen. Representatives from many drug sale outlets are of the view that the banned drug list is circulated by the drugs control department only to the government hospitals, district health centres and their dispensaries. A large number of chemists and druggists in the State do not check the batch numbers and the expiry dates and continues to sell the drugs mainly because they are uninformed.

During an interaction between the representatives of the drugs trade sector and the new Karnataka drugs controller Dr. Suresh Kunhi Muhammed, it was decided that the banned list would be circulated to the drugs trade association who would in turn distribute the copies to all the 15,000 druggists and chemists in Karnataka apart from the 3,000 outlets in Bangalore, V Hari Krishnan, president, Bangalore District Druggists and Chemists Association, told pharmabiz.com

The drugs scam unearthed on March 26, 2003 by the Lok Ayukta has an impact on the drug trade outlets as they do not pay any importance to the banned lists of drugs announced in the media by the department of drugs control, informed a section of drug retailers who still continue to stock Endoplex, a vitamin B complex injection, Amoxycillin dispersible tablets, Gentamycin injections, to name a few.

The drugs are sold on doctor's prescription or purchased over-the-counter by chemists and no one looks at batch numbers informed a source from retail outlet. A drug prescribed for common cold or an antibiotic or a dermatology cream is being manufactured by many pharmaceutical companies and sold under different brand names. The batch numbers are meaning less and there is a total lack of awareness among the chemists and retail outlets on the list of banned drugs. A section of retail outlets expressed that the list was for the public which include patients and their relatives and need to be informed about the banned drugs that their doctors prescribe.

Despite the list of banned drugs that appear in the media almost every other day, even medical practitioners are not informed.

On condition of anonymity, a medical practitioner stated that sometimes they suspected many injections to be filled with distilled water and not with medicine but were not to be found in the banned list of drugs. It all a chance for both doctor and the patient, added a section of doctors from Bowring & Lady Curzon Hospital and Victoria Hospital.

According to Dr. Suresh Kunhi Muhammed, drugs controller, government of Karnataka, his department would go all out to check if the banned drugs were sold in the retail outlets. Having taken charge of the department only since a week, the new drugs controller is trying to in the process of handling several issues among them being corruption and negligence in the trade.

Karnataka State Pharmacy Council has set up the Drug Information Centre (DIC) in Bangalore, which has formed a database of about 1,800 drugs. Information consists of the generic name of the drug, trade name, dosage, interactions with food, cautions, side-effects, comparisons with other similar drugs, therapeutic uses, clinical trials, information on banned drugs. The main users of information, which is absolutely free, are doctors, nurses, pharmacists and patients.