E-Paper
Maha FDA to keep tap on drugs purchased from other states
Currently, drugs from other states are being bought in large quantities by wholesalers and retailers in Maharashtra and sold without informing the state FDA. As per the officials, this poses a serious threat of spurious drugs entering the market
To tackle the issue of counterfeit drugs flooding the market, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has decided to monitor records of drugs purchased by retailers and wholesalers from other states and sold in Maharashtra.
Currently, drugs from other states are being bought in large quantities by wholesalers and retailers in Maharashtra and sold without informing the state FDA. As per the officials, this poses a serious threat of spurious drugs entering the market.
On Monday, the FDA, as a move to prevent this, issued a letter instructing ‘all chemists—retailers and wholesalers to daily update the records of drugs purchased by chemists from other states for sale’.
A separate e-mail address has to be created by the chemists on which they have to submit daily records of medicines purchased from other states along with the bills to authorities. These records and medicines will be cross-verified and checked by the FDA and action will be taken in case of irregularities, said the officials.
SV Pratapwar, joint commissioner of FDA, Pune region, said, the instructions have been given to the retailers and wholesalers to daily submit the records to us. In past incidents in which spurious drugs were found in Pune all these drugs were purchased from other states.
“In Pune earlier this year during two detections spurious injections for immunity booster and iron deficiency were found to be purchased from Gujarat. But during the investigations, we found the drugs were sold from one chemist to another. To narrow down the investigations we had to visit at least six states like Gujarat, Rajasthan and Bihar amongst others and finally found the company that provided the drugs did not exist. FIRs were filed in six states,” said Pratapwar.
Vivek Tapkir, vice-president of Chemist Association Pune District, said the problem of spurious and substandard drugs in the market has become acute and I had written to the government last year in October, highlighting the issue and requesting to control the rampant drugs bought from other states and sold in the market without knowledge of the drug authorities.
“Drugs like MTP kits, habit-forming drugs, anti-depression drugs, and sleeping pills amongst others are purchased from other states by chemists and sold without any record. Most of these drugs are purchased online and the FDA has little control over it. It poses a threat to public health and we welcome the decision taken by the government,” he said.
