Alarmed by the rising concern over spurious medicines posing serious threat to health of the consumers, the Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) president Rao V S V Vadlamudi has underlined the crucial role of supply chain comprising drug wholesalers and pharmacists in reducing and stopping of counterfeiting of drugs.

In a bid to enable drug wholesalers and pharmacists to identify counterfeit drugs and stop them from reaching consumers, IPA- Community Pharmacy Division (IPA-CPD) has conducted training sessions for them in Goa, Ulhasnagar & Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra and Annamalai in Tamil Nadu, Rao said.

The training sessions, based on the manual developed by IPA-CPD as a part of the World Health Professions Alliance (WHPA) initiative of campaign against spurious drugs in India made participants aware of their role in buying medicines from genuine suppliers, tallying the batch number, licence number, manufacturing date and expiry date with invoice while receiving the consignments, he said.

“Training session and module found effective in motivating and creating awareness, understanding related to spurious medicines among pharmacists but we stopped the training session after the WHPA project ended. Now we are in the lookout of partners to support it. Currently, IPA uses the manual to provide training as and when required at various parts of the country as a part of its awareness building programmes during National Pharmacy Week or World Pharmacists Day or during IPA-CPD conventions,” he added.

Rao said that providing training in measures to detect spurious drugs to those involved in drug supply chain is the need of the hour to curb the menace of counterfeiting of medicines. As per CDSCO's state-wise data in 2009, prevalence of counterfeit drugs was highest in retail pharmacies in Bihar. 5.65 per cent spurious drugs were found at the retail pharmacies in the state, followed by Gujarat-4.6 per cent, West Bengal-4.55 per cent, Rajasthan-4.35 per cent, Maharashtra-4.15 per cent, Karnataka-3.1 per cent, Chattisgarh-3.05 per cent, Haryana-2.65 per cent, Tamil Nadu-2.05 per cent, Madhya Pradesh-1.5 per cent, Andhra Pradesh-1.25 per cent, NCT Delhi-1.2 per cent, Goa-1.05 per cent, Punjab- 0.9per cent, Uttar Pradesh-0.75per cent, Assam-0.3per cent.

Besides conducting training programmes for drug wholesalers and pharmacists, the IPA also has worked with drug regulators to strengthen the drive against spurious medicines and has come up with consumer information leaflets to distribute through pharmacies, he informed.