Gujarat pharma plagued by counterfeit drugs: Association forewarns action
Updated: Jan 8th, 2024
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| Fake Medicines (img: Freepik, PNGWing) |
As online sales of substandard medicines surge, authorities face a daunting task in regulating and safeguarding public health. This was discussed during the pan-India chemist workshop held in Ahmedabad on Jan 7, which was attended by around 2,400 chemists from Ahmedabad and more than 34,000 chemists from around Gujarat.
During the event, Jashvant Patel, the chairman of the All India Organization of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD), said that some chemists are tarnishing the association’s name by profiting from illicit incomes by sale of these counterfeit drugs.
Patel said that any chemist found selling spurious or fake drugs in the market under the guise of discounted prices will have their licence revoked by the association.
Chemists selling spurious drugs for profit maximisation?
Addressing the workshop, AIOCD’s honorary secretary, Rajeev Singhal, said that there exists a 10% and 20% margin in the decontrolled category in the drug business. While in the controlled category, a margin of 8% and 16% has been affixed by the government under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order (DPCO).
In such circumstances, chemists selling medicines by offering 30% to 40% discounts are suspicious. This practice is predatory pricing, and the government should act to control it, he said.
Singhal added, “Although big corporations are doing business by offering 25% to 30% discounts, we are only interested in our 20% discount. It is not within our purview to determine its price after all.”
Although drug prices are determined by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), the government should bring control to the practice of predatory pricing, he said.
Singhal also said that the amendments proposed under the National Pharmacy Commission Bill, 2023, aiming to replace the Pharmacy Act, 1948, and the existing Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) with the National Pharmacy Commission should also be represented by chemists to properly address the current situation.
Issue with online pharmacies
Singhal had presented an urge to the Indian government to withdraw the 2018 notification pertaining to online pharmacies in the amendments to the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945.
He urged the online pharmacies to comply with and implement the rules and regulations of the association before setting up their stores.
The Food and Drug Commissioner of Gujarat, Dr Hemant G Koshia, who was also a member of the committee formed to draft the rules on online medicine sales, said, “The online pharmacy can run only if the issues of patient safety and quality of products can be resolved. In the raids conducted at the online drug stores in the last six years most of the counterfeit drugs were of leading brands.”
He added, “It should not be permissible to dispense medicines without the physical presence of a pharmacist. Only after these issues can be resolved can the sale of online medicine be allowed.”
Substandard medicines in Gujarat
It has been alleged that chemists buy medicines from states other than Gujarat, and they turn out to be counterfeit or duplicate medicines.
Gujarat’s medicines are known to comply with all the medical standards, and their failure ratio is reportedly less than 1%. While that of other states is reportedly somewhere between 3% to 6%.
