SAHIWAL, Jan 24: At least 437 medical stores were inspected and 262 samples were collected from them in a campaign against spurious drugs during the last two months in the Sahiwal division.

Drug inspectors also sealed 27 medical stores in the Sahiwal district, Maj Abdul Rehman Rana (retired), the convener of sub-committee on Task Force for Spurious Drugs, disclosed this on Saturday while chairing a meeting in the Commissioner Office.

He rejected the allegation that the Task Force on Spurious Drugs was established to harm the medicine business.

He said: “We are simply regulating the whole business and netting those who are playing with the health of citizens".

Rana asked health officials and drug inspectors to intensify the campaign against spurious drugs to save the people from the menace.

He also suggested that TMAs’ staff and the provincial environment department should be involved in the drive to get maximum results.

Participants in the meeting were informed that complete information was being collected about quacks and soon a database at the divisional level would be compiled.

Commissioner Tariq Mehmood Khan directed the health department to register all doctors, hospitals and other health facilities in Sahiwal division and prepare a comprehensive directory in this regard.