KARACHI, Nov 5: Sindh Health Minister Dr Sagheer Ahmad has asked the officials to immediately inspect the stores doing business in the vicinity of various hospitals in the city for quality, safety and effectiveness of the drugs they sell.

He was responding to complaints and suggestions made by participants of a seminar on ‘Counterfeit, substandard and spurious medicines’, held at the Pakistan Medical Association House on Wednesday.

The minister was told that efforts should be made at least as a short-term initiative to inspect the stores and pharmacies operating on or near hospital premises and major healthcare facilities as a number of them might be found not complying with the relevant laws and procuring, storing and distributing drugs and medical supplies of non-acceptable quality at high prices.

In its attempts to discourage the handling and sale of substandard or fake medicines, the government should not ignore the medical stores where attendants of patients had to rush often on the demands of hospital doctors for the purchase of life-saving drugs having very little time at their disposal and as the integrity of the pharmacists or the medical store keepers counted very much, a questioner said.

Passing an order for the health officials concerned in his speech, the health minister said that apart from what his department intended to do on a long-term basis for the betterment of public health and availability of quality health products in the market, it was possible for the department to conduct immediate inspection or raids and staff would be deployed for the purpose soon.

Dr Ahmad expressed his concern over the sale of spurious, expired or substandard medicines in the province and said that the health department was highly concerned over the issue and was addressing it not only by utilising the available legal tools and related field officers, but was also trying to get the regulatory loophole removed and bring some more draft legislations to the assembly.

He appreciated the role of drug inspectors of the Sindh government and noted that there was an urgent need to increase the numbers of such inspectors as the existing strength was not enough to check the menace of spurious and substandard drugs. Staff members of the health department and the law enforcement agencies succeed in reaching the culprits and arresting them as well, but the exercise prove futile as the persons or their sponsors could not be put behind bars for long as the laws did not have a room for such developments, he added.

According to the minister, he had inherited some problems from the previous governments as well, but now he personally felt that there should be something very sound and strong to handle the issue of illegal and heinous marketing of substandard, adulterated and counterfeit medicines, otherwise the citizens would continue to suffer at the hands of unscrupulous elements, in addition to damaging the credibility of the public health system, health mangers and the pharmaceutical companies.

In the existing circumstances while the health department is extremely banking on its drug inspectors and motivating them in all ways and expecting of them to remain honest to the noble cause of health, “I will request the relevant quarters, the media, NGOs and health professionals to join hands in the war against spurious drugs,” he said.

Earlier, the audience were shown a documentary on recent raids by the FIA with drug inspectors against counterfeit medicines.

Speaking at the seminar, FIA Director Mir Zuber Mahmood said that counterfeit and fake medicines worth Rs60 million had been seized and many workers, associates and the owners were arrested as a result of 13 raids made in recent months. Though the arrested culprits go free at some stage, the FIA does not lose hope and is determined to continue such raids in the future as well as every common and influential man is at the risk of using ineffective, fake and counterfeit medicines.

Prof Dr Tipu Sultan, a senior health practitioner, said those involved in the production, procurement, sale and prescription of substandard, counterfeit and unregistered medicines and drugs deserved severe punishment. The menace has turned into an extremely dangerous and organised business and criminal activity that also affected the reputation of the doctors, he said, and demanded “meaning and fool-proof interventions”.

Dr Samreena Hashmi, general secretary of the PMA, Karachi, said that in a situation when the affordability of medicines in the case of poor and average income families was turning very difficult, there was an urgent need for ensuring the quality and effectiveness of medicines supplied to the markets across the country.

The organisers of the seminar presented shields to the deputy director of the FIA, Khaliquzzaman, drug inspectors Salim Leghari and Abdur Rahim to appreciate their efforts.

Later, the special secretary of the Sindh health department, Dr Abdul Majid, told Dawn that instructions had been given to the drug inspectors to start a survey and raids on different medical and drug stores located near hospitals from Thursday morning. During the inspection, not only the products put on sale would be examined, but the health department teams would also examine whether the shops were duly licensed and worked strictly in line with the existing drug laws and regulations, he added.