AP: Action sought against erring pharma companies

The Praja Arogya Vedika has urged the Centre to streamline the functioning of the drug control authority with periodical inspections and checkups

Visakhapatnam: The Praja Arogya Vedika, affiliated to Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, has urged the Centre to streamline the functioning of the drug control authority with periodical inspections and checkups in order to give boost to industry and raise the image of India internationally.

In a letter addressed to the union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya here on Tuesday, the Vedika president MV Ramanaiah and general secretary T. Kameswara Rao noted that India tagged “pharmacy of the world” had received a big blow very recently and every country in the world looked at India with suspicion due to adverse effects on pharmaceutical exports of late which caused irreparable damage to the industry.

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“All this happened after 66 children died in Gambia on taking cough syrup manufactured by Maiden Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd a company based in Haryana and another 18 to 21 children died in Uzbekistan due to cough syrup supplied by Marion Biotech facilities, Noida, Uttar Pradesh. It’s high time the Indian government rose to the situation and a thorough enquiry constituted initiating stringent action on the firms supplying such medicine internationally which damages the credibility of our nation. Meanwhile, the industries identified in this episode must be seized immediately. It has also come in news that WHO is going to probe into the matter of deaths that occurred due to inferior medicine supplied from Haryana and Noida pharma industries,” they stated.

They also pointed out that Nepal in the neighbourhood even went a step ahead and banned imports from 16 pharma companies include Radiant Parenterals Ltd., Mercury Laboratories Ltd., Alliance Biotech, Captab Biotec, Aglowmed Limited, Zee Laboratories Ltd, Daffodils Pharmaceuticals Ltd, GLS pharma Limited, UnijulesLife Science Ltd, Concept Pharmaceuticals Pvt, Shree Anand Life Sciences Ltd, IPCA laboratories Ltd, Cadila Healthcare Ltd, Dial Pharmaceuticals, Aglowmed Limited, and Mackur laboratories Ltd. as they are not following Good Manufacturing practices as per WHO.

The Ministry of health should take steps to establish a powerful mechanism to check pharma products manufactured company by company batch by batch, the quality, strict implementation of the act and rules of Drugs and Cosmetics act 1940 and rules 1945 to check inferior quality pharma and food manufacturing units without discrimination whether it is generic, MNC or Indian on continuous process to ensure GMP norms as per WHO, they opined.

In case of any violation, notices should be issued to the concerned and the production of such pharma / food products should be suspended and destroyed at factory level, imposing deterrent punishment on such managements to avoid earlier experiences of getting back of our products from US, UK, France, other countries etc., they felt.

As per some studies nearly 25 per cent of the pharma products in the market are adulterated and the greed of the pharma giants is claiming the lives of innocent children and senior citizens, the Vedika leaders lamented.