Substandard injections: Three senior off icials named in spurious drugs case

Health Services chief says the vaccines were not detrimental to health.

PESHAWAR:

The health department has completed its internal inquiry on purchase of substandard interferon injections and found three senior officials guilty of being involved in the scam.

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Health Department had bought around 1.6 million vials of interferon vaccine at the cost of Rs150.4 million and had them tested and approved from a laboratory in Lahore, instead of the National Biological Laboratory in Islamabad.

According to the inquiry report, Hepatitis Control Programme Project Director Dr Ghulam Subhani along with senior drug analysts Zakir Shah and Khalid Khan were found guilty of buying the medicines at low prices and getting them tested from an unauthorised laboratory.

“The drugs were substandard but not detrimental to health and we have the authority to replace them or return them to the pharmaceutical company from which we bought them,” K-P Health Services Director General Dr Sharif Ahmad Khan told The Express Tribune.

He claimed lack of experts in testing such drugs along with lack of knowledge about their quality and storage was the reason behind the multi-million rupee scandal.



“A few people involved in this notorious act have brought a bad name to the whole vaccination programme. The ultimate sufferers are the patients who cannot afford expensive treatment and will now doubt the quality of injections as well,” said Dr Khan.

He added the department has sent samples of interferon injections to the National Biological Laboratory, which will test them and send a report back accordingly.

Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court Dost Muhammad Khan took suo motu notice of the matter on March 6 and ordered Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Director Fayyaz Ali Shah to probe the usage of low-quality interferon injections for treatment of HCV.

ACE suspects six people have died due to the use of these medicines and has ordered all district police officers (DPO) across the province to investigate if any deaths occurred in their respective areas. The DPOs were told to submit their report by March 30.

In a hearing of the case, Director Shah informed the court he had sent names of three prime suspects to K-P Chief Secretary Ghulam Dastagir to obtain his permission for further action.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 28^th, 2013.