LAHORE: Minister for Primary and Secondary Healthcare (PSHD) Dr Akhtar Malik says the drug control wing of his department has unearthed an inter-provincial big network which was supplying substandard medicines to the public sector hospitals of Punjab.

Talking to the media along with Punjab PSHD Secretary Dr Arshad Ahmad, he said the wing had seized the stock of the various adulterated medicines and initiated punitive action against the culprits.

“The first case pertains to the product Escitalopram manufactured by a local manufacturer and (it) was found to be adulterated with an unregistered drug (sildenafil),” Mr Malik said.

The health minister said the medicine was supplied to three public hospitals of the province. The drug inspectors immediately seized stocks of the supplied batch in hospitals, distributors and manufacturing premises.

It should be noted that Escitalopram is an antidepressant but slidenafil treats erectile dysfunction and it is sold under the brand name of Viagra. The sale and distribution of Viagra is illegal in Pakistan.

Antidepressant was found adulterated with erectile dysfunction drug

The second case pertains to supply of a medicine Isoflurane used in anesthesia for surgical procedure, he said.

The medicine was being supplied to public sector hospitals through local purchase vendor (LPV) and private sector.

“On analysis by the Drug Testing Lab (DTL), it has been found that supplied medicine was spurious and adulterated and contains chloroform instead of Isoflurane,” the minister said and added that the drugs control teams busted an interprovincial gang involved in supply of the said drug. He said the multiple raids were conducted at Faisalabad & Rawalpindi and huge stocks (of the medicine) were seized.

“The third case was related to the sale of the medicine, Tizanidine, of a local manufacturer in the open market,” Dr Akhtar said and added that an analysis showed that the tablet was adulterated with Metronidazole.

“A special drug control team, led by chief drugs controller Punjab, raided the manufacturer and sealed the premises for committing violations,” he said

The health minister said that the drugs control wing has saved the precious lives of patients while taking timely action of seizing three spurious medicines.

He said the department had five ISO Certified Drugs Testing Laboratories. Two of them are prequalified by the World Health Organisation while the rest of DTLs would acquire WHO prequalification status in the near future. Hence, testing standards of DTLs Punjab are at par with international standards.

The minister said that contrary to previous practice, health facilities have concluded procurement of medicines by the end of December. He added that about 6,000 bogus appointments in dengue control programme causing loss of millions of rupees to the national exchequer had been unearthed and the case had been referred to the Anti-Corruption Department for investigation, he added.

Dr Malik said 190 ventilators which were lying in warehouses for some period had now been dispatched to the health facilities in a week.

On the occasion, Secretary Health Dr Irshad Ahmad said the CT Scanning Services through outsourced mode were being expanded and MRI was being introduced at the DHQ & THQ hospitals level.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2022