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WEEKLY
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| Health department intensifies drive against sale of spurious drugs |
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Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Muhammad Qasim
Rawalpindi
The District Health Department claimed that it has raised deterrence level to check the sale of spurious drugs, quackery and the practice of using veterinary drugs for human therapeutic treatment in private clinics.
“We have intensified the drive against violators of Drug Act 1976 and quacks and are trying to give them a message that they would not be spared,” said Provincial Inspector of Drugs Naveed Anwar while talking to ‘The News’ Tuesday. He said that within past two weeks, he had sent 45 samples of different drugs from different medical stores of Rawal Town to Drug Testing Laboratory in Lahore for testing/analysis.
He said that District Quality Control Board meeting held in DCO office on Monday (July 13), prosecuted four traders and one clinic of Rawal Town and has sent their cases to special drug court. “Pharma Logistics, a distribution house, Zafar Pharmacy located in Zafar Memorial Hospital along Saidpur Road, Standard Medical Store in Bohr Bazaar and City Pharmacy in Bangash Colony have been prosecuted for not having valid drug sale license while a clinic namely ‘The Clinic’ along Tipu Road was prosecuted for being run by a quack,” he said.
He added that he sealed two medical stores and a clinic within this month while challaned other five medical stores for violating Drug Act 1976. “My team sealed Hassan Welfare Medical Centre at Khayaban-e-Sir Syed that was being run by a quack. “We have recovered 36 unregistered drugs from the centre.” Seht Clinic along Bokra Road in Pirwadhai, Malik Medical Store, Al-Asghar Chemist and Agha Medical Store in Pirwadhai have been ‘challaned’. He added that Kohsar Distributors in Bohr Bazaar was ‘challaned’ for having expired drugs and poor storage conditions. He said that he has sent the said cases to District Quality Control Board.
Giving details of the drive in Taxila during July, he said that Drug Inspector Munir Ahmed has sealed Zainab Memorial Medical Complex there for running pharmacy without having valid drug sale license. “Malik Medicose, Medicine Point and Al-Qayyum Medicose in Taxila have been challaned for not maintaining record of sale/purchase of narcotics and steroids. They were selling expired and unwarranted drugs too,” he said.
To a query, he said that Special Drug Court has decided some 20 cases within past three months and imposed a total fine of Rs300,000 on illegal operators. “All these 20 cases were framed by Drug Inspector Shafiq Khan,” he added.
To a query, he said that more than 1,600 drug dealers are running their business all across the district and District Health Department has warned them not to involve in illegal sale of drugs. He said that the crackdown on violators of Drug Act 1976 and quacks is an ongoing activity. “We managed to inspect some suspected drugstores thrice in a month,” he explained.
It is important that district health departments throughout Punjab have launched crackdown against violators of Drug Act 1976, quacks and medical practitioners using veterinary drugs for human treatment on the directives of Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif last year however, so far the markets could not be cleared from spurious drugs.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
