The social menace of spurious drugs and counterfeiting can be minimized only if the consumers become vigilant on the same and also with the socially committed trade community. Since this is an economic offense, which ahs serious impact on the public health and social life, the regulatory measures are still inadequate to eliminate the menace, says Uttam Khobragade, commissioner, Food and Drug Administration, Maharashtra.

The FDA chief was speaking at the seminar jointly organized by the Indian Drug Manufacturers Association (IDMA), Organization of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), PAMDAL and AIOCD, on "Spurious Drugs, Its Magnitude and What Needs to be Done" in Mumbai today.

Though the FDA along with Central Drug Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) have devised number of schemes to investigate and to book the culprits, it may not be as effective as it is expected since the problem has already grown very complex at present, he said. The FDA chief urged the genuine manufacturers and the public, who are the two victims of the problem to be come more vigilant and also to become more cautious on the issue to help the regulators to eliminate the menace.

In the seminar, Yogin Majmudar, president, IDMA, elaborated the magnitude of the spurious drug and counterfeiting and alarmed the industry to adopt to more stringent measures to control the same. Ranjit Shahani, president, OPPI and vice chairman and managing director, Novartis India, and DD Chopra, former, Managing director, Rhone Poulenc, shared their experiences in the industry in fighting the spurious and counterfeited drugs.

The seminar would have different sessions and panel discussions on various issues pertaining to prevention of drug counterfeiting and spurious manufacturing. In the first session on the spurious drugs, Dr M D Nair, leading pharma consultant, and Lalit Kumar, executive director, Wockhardt Limited made presentations on the effects and implications on the industry.