Our Bureau

New Delhi , Feb. 26

EVEN as the law proposing death penalty to manufacturers of spurious drugs has lapsed after the dissolution of Parliament, a National Forum for Anti-spurious Drugs has been set up to tackle the issue.

The Forum, under the Chairmanship of Mr Suresh Prabhu, will work towards increasing the awareness of spurious drugs across the country. "We will write to all the political parties and ask them to make it part of the election campaign. We will also ask the Government to finance well-known consumer groups to set up laboratories to test spurious drugs," said Mr Prabhu.

He also added that as per the recommendations of the Mashelkar Committee Report, a single drug administration authority must be set up to monitor the segment. He also said that the manufacturing standards must be overhauled to reach the WHO manufacturing standards, the distribution and the prescription of drugs also need to be monitored to reduce the circulation of spurious drugs.

The Forum would have members from the corporate sector, legal experts and other eminent personalities. It is estimated that a large percentage of the world's spurious drugs are produced in India and the market for fake drugs is estimated to be worth Rs 4,000 crore or 20 per cent of the total drugs market. The Government of India had decided on death penalty for spurious drug manufacturers and had introduced a Bill in Parliament. However with Parliament being dissolved, the Bill would have to introduce afresh once the new one is in place.

The crusade against spurious drugs also comes at a time when the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has made bar coding of medicines mandatory. This is being done to reduce medication errors.

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