Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Monday, Apr 07, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Monday, Apr 07, 2003 |
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Pharmaceuticals Industry & Economy - Pharmaceuticals Spurious drugs market growing Aparna Krishnan
MUMBAI, April 6 IT'S worse than the killer flu. Many patients are affected by it without them being aware of it. The menace of spurious drugs is growing rapidly. It is not limited to the medicines for common ailments anymore. The technical sophistication available to this con job makes it difficult for the manufacturers and regulator to identify the counterfeits. This has given a new dimension to the murky world of counterfeit drugs. Although there are different accounts of the extent of the damage done because of spurious drugs in the country, the annual sales figure could be close to Rs 3,000-4,000 crore, about 15-20 per cent of the total domestic pharmaceutical business. The bigwigs of the pharmaceutical industry gathered here to discuss on the topic, `Spurious drugs, its magnitude and what needs to be done.' And their list of concerns on this issue only seems to be getting longer. Says Mr Lalit Kumar, Executive Director, Wockhardt Ltd, "The counterfeit drugs industry is no longer restricted to tablets and capsules but graduated to production of expensive and sophisticated injections, expensive tablets and inhalers." The therapy segments in the spurious market has also widened. "Traditionally, antibiotics, anti-protozoals, anti-malarial, anti-hormone and steroids were counterfeited extensively. But now current trends suggest that lifestyle drugs are coming into the fold as well. These include, nutritional, anti-diabetes, anti-hypertensives and cancer drugs," said Dr Professor B.K. Goyal, Director, ICC Bombay Hospital. The superior printing technology has also added a new aspect to labelling counterfeits. Says Dr M. Venkateswarlu, Deputy Drug Controller (I) West Zone, "There are several instances of companies not being able to identify the counterfeit of their own products because of the labelling and packaging." Negligence in other areas such as testing laboratories, quackery in the medical profession and a loss of opportunities for small-scale industries (SSI) in generics business have increased production of spurious drugs in India. Dr Venkateswarlu adds, On the export front too, the `Made in India' image has suffered. India and China have the dubious distinction of being the largest producers and exporters of spurious drugs in the world, Dr M.D. Nair said. "In Vietnam and Myanmar, according to World Health Organisation, more than 40 per cent of antibiotics imported from India and as much as 11 per cent in the market are sub-standard," said Mr Lalit Kumar.
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