Health ministry's whistle-blower scheme to trace spurious drugs fails as no case reported in 4 years

The much-trumpeted whistle blower scheme to trace spurious drugs in the country has failed to make a mark even after four years, though the sterner steps by the government in the recent years did help arrest the spread of spurious drugs in the country. According to the figures available with the Health Ministry, there was a decrease in the number of both spurious drug cases and the substandard drugs during the last financial year. Against 113 cases of spurious or adulterated drugs during 2011-12, only 25 such cases were reported till December 31 during the last fiscal. However, sources said no case was found eligible for any reward so far under the whistle blower scheme which was initiated by the government to encourage vigilant public participation in the detection of movement of spurious drugs in the country. Under this scheme, the informers would be suitably rewarded for providing concrete information to the regulatory authorities in respect of movement of spurious drugs. Out of the total 35006 samples collected by the authorities during the last fiscal, 1199 were found to be of not of quality while 25 were declared spurious or adulterated. The Government initiated prosecution against 113 people in connection with these cases. During 2011-12, the Government officials took 48082 samples from the chemist shops and sent for tests. As many as 2188 samples were found substandard while 133 were tested spurious or adulterated and 211 prosecution cases were initiated. Going by the percentage, 4.54 per cent were substandard while only 0..27 per cent were tested spurious. During 2010-11, out of the total samples of 49682, as many as 2372 were found substandard, constituting 4.77 per cent of the total samples. However, the number of spurious drugs were 95, which accounted just 0.19 per cent of the total samples. Government sources also clarified that there was no adverse report by the World Health Organisation about the spread of spurious drugs in the country. WHO  clarified in August 2012 that it has not conducted any study regarding fake drugs in the past several years. As per the information made available by the State Drugs Controllers in respect of the drugs samples tested during last three years, the percentage of substandard drugs varied from 5.70 per cent in 2008-09 to 4.54 per cent in 2011-12. The Drugs & Cosmetics (Amendment) Act, 2008, enabled setting up of specially designated courts for trial of offences covered under the Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940. 16 States /UTs have already set up such courts. Source:Pharmabiz