The Tamil Nadu Chemists and Druggists Association (TNCDA) and the Chemists and Druggists Association (CDA) have initiated a campaign in Tamil Nadu against the unsubstantiated reports that makes India infamous as one of the largest producer of spurious drugs. The associations alleged that such reports are mainly being spread by institutions with vested interest and also by the not-well-informed media.

In a recent media meet the associations announced that Tamil Nadu has been free of spurious drug manufacturing and marketing and requested the media to refrain from highlighting baseless allegations related to spurious drug availability in the state and in the country too.

Raged with few articles that appeared recently in a leading Tamil weekly and a subsequent programme in a popular Tamil TV channel, the office bearers of the association felt such campaigns would create panic among the people and might damage the reputation of the Indian drug industry and trade not only in the state but also at the global level.

Talking to Pharmabiz, N Anandan, secretary of TNCDA felt the recent news reports were mainly based on some controversial articles on spurious drugs that appeared a few months ago in some of the leading national English magazines. The same were unnecessarily echoed by some of the office bearers of a responsible organisation, which is part of the trade and industry in the state, and that was highlighted by the media. He noted that even the World Health Organisation (WHO) had denied a so-called study report on spurious drugs and its availability in the country attributed to it.

Citing the Mashelkar Committee report, N Balaraja, general secretary of CDA said the sale of spurious drugs accounted only 0.24 per cent to 0.47 per cent of the total market in the country. He also said the associations would continue to alert the public and media on the wrong information related to the availability of spurious drugs in the market. PL Veerappan, treasurer of TNCDA, N Suresh Kumar, president, Chandrasekhar, treasurer, and Sridhar, Zone Coordinator of CDA were also present at the meeting.