Substandard medicines

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that around one million people die every year worldwide because of the use of fake medicines. In Pakistan, in 2012, 120 people died when they took substandard heart medicines. It is unfortunate that because of the abundance of spurious medicines in markets, untimely deaths become inevitable. These medicines are packed in a way that they appear identical to the genuine product. Therefore, it becomes difficult to detect a fake product. These products may use the wrong ingredients or the wrong amount of the correct ingredient and often contain impurities.

Industries that manufacture substandard medicines are unfortunately in abundance in the country. In the name of medicines, innocent people are actually paying for their death. These medicines don’t treat the disease for which they are being taken. It is the government’s responsibility to order a crackdown on industries involved in the manufacturing of fake medicines.

Afifa Usman

Gujranwala