Markets flooded with fake medicines as makers halt production over pricing row

Counterfeiters have flooded markets with copies of life-saving medicines after drug manufacturers stopped production of several essential medicines over pricing issues with the authorities, local chemists claimed on Friday and warned pharmacies and medicine business owners to beware of 19 life-saving and essential medicines whose copies were being supplied across Pakistan.

On the other hand, action against counterfeiters continued when a joint team of Sindh’s drug inspectors and police on Friday raided a compound in Saudabad area of Karachi where counterfeit tablets of an unregistered Indian medicine ‘Relief’ was being packed and supplied to different areas of Karachi as well as Thatta, Badin, Sujawal and adjoining areas, officials said.

“On a tip-off, we raided a compound in the Saudabad area of Karachi, where four persons were busy in packing Relief tablets, which is an unregistered product of Indian origin. Counterfeit copies of unregistered drug Relief were being produced at the compound from where they were being supplied to different cities of lower Sindh,” provincial drug inspector Shahid Abbasi told The News.

The official said that during the raid, they found several sacks of tablets inside the compound where it was being packed in blister packs. He added that the unregistered medicine is widely used by elderly men and women for immediate relief of pain and several other conditions.

“The formula of this medicine is very strange as it contains several painkillers and other salts and no such medicine is available in Pakistan. Due to its quick action, many people prefer it, and counterfeiters are now making its local copies in Karachi and other cities of Sindh,” said Drug Inspector Abbasi.

He said a person, namely Ali Raza, was the owner of the compound, while three labourers were busy in packing the tablets in blister packs adding that all four of them have been arrested by the area police and booked under relevant laws.

“Police is investigating while we are completing our legal requirements. We have seized the samples and sent them to the lab for chemical analysis to ascertain what type of material was being used to produce the counterfeit medicines.”

Chemists’ warning

In order to prevent people from buying spurious and counterfeit medicines, the Pakistan Chemists and Druggists Association (PCDA) issued a list of 19 medicines, including life-saving antibiotics, painkillers and antipsychotic drugs, which they feared were not genuine and their fake copies were being spread in the market.

“We have issued a list of 19 medicines, including Meronem injections, some leading painkiller injections, antipsychotic drugs like Alprazolam, medicines for the treatment of gastric issues and others, whose counterfeit copies have been impounded by drug inspectors in Punjab and Sindh recently,” an office-bearer of the PCDA told The News on Friday.

He said that as pharmaceutical companies were not manufacturing these medicines due to their conflict with the government over pricing, counterfeiters were filling the gap but they were flooding the market with fake medicines, which could prove extremely fatal for patients.

He claimed that the mastermind of the business of fake medicines in Pakistan was a person known as Najibullah son of Rafiullah, a permanent resident of the Zhob area of Balochistan, and last time he was traced it was in the Jahanian area of Punjab.

“Various law enforcing agencies are trying to local this person, who is the main character behind spurious and counterfeit medicines in Pakistan,” the PCDA official said and urged the people to cooperate with the authorities to nab the culprit.