The Gujarat government announced on Tuesday that it is working on creating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to improve the detection and seizure of fake and duplicate medicines entering the state.
According to a media report, “Recently, it came to the notice of the state government that fake medicines are entering (Gujarat). They are being sourced from outside the state and sold in some places inside the state. Gujarat’s Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) has also taken action by conducting on-site inspections. To make this more stringent and strict, the government will prepare an SOP for the inspection of medicines coming from outside the state into Gujarat,” Health Minister Rushikesh Patel was quoted as saying.
The SOPs would make registration of imported medicines mandatory, require registration of transporters carrying medicines and cancellation of licenses of chemists or wholesalers who are caught in such dealing with fake medicines. The SOPs will also require people to strictly follow the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. Besides, expensive and “fast-moving” medicines will be closely monitored.
The state government will also start three new testing labs in addition to the existing NABL-certified laboratory in Vadodara. To intensify on-site testing, 10 sets of state-of-the-art hand-held devices (Raman Spectrometer with Advanced Technology) will be purchased. Further, a flying squad will be formed.
Patel added that with the implementation of these SOPs, Gujarat will become the first state in the country to adopt “zero-tolerance” towards duplicate and fake medicines.
“The government will take intensive action to prevent fake/spurious/counterfeit medicines from outside the state in Gujarat. In the last 4 years, raids were conducted to prevent counterfeit medicines/cosmetics in the state and more than Rs 6 crore (worth of) medicines/cosmetics were seized…about 75 persons/firms were found involved and action was taken against them,” a statement read.
Speaking about the type of activities unearthed so far, the statement said, “In most of these cases, persons who do not have a valid license for buying, selling and storing medicines are involved and investigation has also revealed that in most of the cases, counterfeit medicines come from outside the state.”