Spurious drugs worth over Rs4m seized

LAHORE:Minister for Primary and Secondary Healthcare Khawaja Imran Nazir has said that as a result of a successful crackdown by the Drug Control Field Force of the Punjab Health Department, spurious medicines worth over Rs4 million have been seized.

Two accused were arrested and a case was registered against them at Gulberg Police Station. The spurious medicines included life-saving Ketamine injections (being used in anesthesia), cough syrups, Canadex-N cream, serum and a large quantity of sex drugs. A network involved in the sale of these medicines has been exposed in Lahore, Multan, DG Khan, Rahim Yar Khan, Sargodha and Toba Tek Singh and strict action is being taken against them under the Drug Act, he added.

The health minister while addressing a press conference at the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department, said that the health department, with the cooperation of Gulberg Police, has exposed this network and has cracked down in other cities. Under the vision of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, a foolproof system for the sale of quality medicines is being formulated. Under this system, the open sale of counterfeit, unregistered and adulterated medicines has been stopped, now the sale is going on through WhatsApp groups.

The minister said that the network involved in the theft of insulin worth millions of rupees has also been broken in the past few days. He said that as per the instructions of the chief minister, the elements involved in the sale of spurious drugs would be eliminated and black sheep in the health department would be held accountable. Khawaja Imran Nazir said that a crackdown has also been taken against the illegal business of adulterated medicines.

‘Our field force was mobilised on information that the so-called Hakeem Saifullah Sekho was involved in the manufacturing and distribution of these sexual drugs and unregistered herbal sexual drugs were identified. A network located in Pir Mahal, Toba Tek Singh was found involved in the distribution of these drugs, which was raided in a systematic manner and a large quantity of drugs was seized and a case was also registered,’ he added. The minister said that similarly, 29 different types of unregistered drugs were seized by raiding the dawakhanas located in DG Khan and Lahore and the same were sealed and FIRs were registered against the persons involved in trade. The minister, while explaining the performance of the health department, said that this year 1,740 challans were issued against fake and substandard medicines and 4,286 fine tickets were issued for violation of the Drug Act, while 144 FIRs were registered against the accused involved in unregistered and counterfeit medicines.