The House Committee on Spurious Drugs today met under the Chairpersonship of Dr Shenaz Ganai to discuss the procedures, parameters and steps taken up by the Health and Medical Education Department to check the sale of substandard and spurious drugs in the state.Legislators, Naresh Kumar Gupta, Dr. Bashir Ahmad Veeri and special invitee Ghulam Nabi Monga attended the meeting.Ganai asked the Drug and Food Control Organization to devise effective mechanism to keep check on supply and sale of spurious drugs in the market. “The Organization needs to work with more dedication to plug the entry of substandard medicines in the state. The only motive should be to save the patients from getting fleeced by those selling such drugs,” she asserted.Highlighting the importance of close monitoring, she said common people do not know about the manufacturers and the quality standards so the whole responsibility lies on the government in checking this menace.
The committee also directed concerned authorities to conduct regular market inspections to tighten noose around those indulging in sale of spurious drugs.Collection of the samples from the market should be made a regular feature to check the quality of the drugs sold under different brand names,” the members maintained.The Health and Medical Education Department furnished the information regarding Drug Manufacturing and monitoring policy implemented in the state.The chairman asked the concerned authorities to provide detailed report on the quality control mechanism put in place to ensure that people get genuine drugs in the market.Controller Drug & Food Organization (J&K) Lotika Khajuria, Special Secretary Council Secretariat and other officers of Drug and Food Organization and Council Secretariat were also present in the meeting.