Fighting spurious drugs is a national issue and only a collaborative effort involving pharmaceutical industry, trade, medical profession and general public could bring a solution to this menace, according to Suresh Prabhu, the former Union minister for chemicals and fertilizers and a member of Parliament.

Inaugurating a seminar, “Spurious Drugs-A Pernicious Health Hazard”, organized by Indian Drug Manufacturers Association (IDMA) here on Friday he said that eradication of fake drugs is not a problem of pharmaceutical industry and regulators alone. Availability of fake medicine affects everyone in the country and a holistic approach is what is required to solve this problem.

Prabhu said that apart from the direct stakeholders, the political parties in the country should also come forward to meet this serious challenge facing the health of the people of this country. He would be writing to all political parties seeking their support to counter this problem on a national level.

While capital punishment or other legislative initiatives could work as deterrent to those engaged in this nefarious activity what is urgently required is a strong administrative mechanism in place to check the growth of spurious drug manufacture and distribution, he said. Spurious drugs enter into market at various stages of the supply chain. A proper supply chain management system, therefore, needs to be evolved and implemented by the drug administrative machinery, Prabhu felt.

Dr. M.Venkateswarlu, deputy drugs controller, Western Zone, said that while retail and dispensing counters are mainly responsible for release of fake and counterfeit drugs to the public, sharply rising contract manufacturing activity in the country is adding to the problem.

First of all pharmaceutical trade has to behave responsibly by maintaining proper records of all purchases and sales and by avoiding any purchases from unauthorised dealers. Medical profession also needs to be disciplined while buying medicines for dispensing to their patients. Peddlers of spurious medicines are actively using this channel to push their products.

Increasing contract manufacturing activity in the country is adding to the problem. Several large and medium scale pharmaceutical companies in the country are getting their branded products manufactured from three to four locations in the country. It is quite possible that some of these units may sell some batches by themselves in the market. Some monitoring of contract manufacturing activity is called for to curb the possible misuse by contact manufacturers, he said.