Public health: ‘Legislation against spurious drugs being strengthened’

Chief minister’s adviser on health favours stringent punishments for those dealing in spurious drugs

LAHORE: Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khwaja Salman Rafiq said on Saturday the government was working on stronger legislation against the manufacture and sale of spurious and substandard medicines.

He said some amendments were proposed in the Drug Act, 1976, suggesting more stringent punishments for those involve in the illegal trade. He was speaking at an orientation seminar on laws regarding spurious drugs. The Health Department had arranged the seminar at the Management and Professional Development Department.

Chief Secretary Khizar Hayat Gondal said spurious drugs were the same as poison. The government was committed to curbing the evil trade at all costs, he said. He said more such seminars and training programmes would be organised for drug inspectors and stakeholders from the private sector.

Prosecution Secretary Ali Murtaza and Law Department Director Mohsin Abbas delivered lectures regarding the proposed amendments to the Drug Act, 1976. They said the definitions of spurious and substandard medicines had been made more elaborate in the new clauses. They said stricter clauses had also been proposed on monitoring of drug inspectors. Action has been proposed against drug inspectors registering false FIRs, they said. They said that if made part of the Act, the amendments would help ensure quality of medicines.

Lahore and Multan Drug Testing Laboratories Directors Jamil Anwar and Muhammad Siddique Khan talked about collection of drug samples, methodology, standard operating procedures and technical aspects of analysing the drug samples.

Punjab Information Technology Board Director General Rizwan Rashid informed the participants that e-monitoring of drug inspectors had been introduced. For the purpose, he said, android cell phones had been given to drug inspectors in Lahore. He said the PITB would now introduce a mobile governance system to monitor the performance of drug inspectors. He said a helpline 0800-02345 had been activated on which citizens could register complaints about spurious or substandard drugs.

A question-answer session was part of the seminar.

Additional Chief Secretary Syed Mubashir Raza, Health Secretary Jawad Rafiq Malik, Chief Minister Drug Taskforces Vice Chairmen Qazi Adnan Farid and Zeeshan Gurmani, Health Services Director General Zahid Pervaiz and World Health Organisation representative Khalid Saeed attended the seminar.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 2^nd, 2015.