The Hindu Business Line : Cabinet rejects death penalty for spurious drug makers

The proposal was initially mooted as part of the amendments to the Drugs and Cosmetics Act by the erstwhile National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government.

Highly placed Government sources said that while the Cabinet has cleared the other amendments to the Act, the death penalty clause did not find favour. The other amendments to the Act include making the offence a cognisable one, imposing stiffer penalties on manufacturers of spurious drugs and having special designated courts to hear such offences.

It is estimated that a large percentage of the world's spurious drugs are produced in India and the market for fake drugs is estimated to be over Rs 4,000 crore or 20 per cent of the total drugs market. The Vajpayee-led Government had decided on death penalty for spurious drug manufacturers and introduced a Bill in Parliament. However, before the Bill could be passed, the Parliament was dissolved.

The NDA Government had decided to introduce the death penalty clause based on a report by an expert committee under Dr R.A. Mashelkar, Director-General, Central Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

It had suggested that the penalty for sale and manufacture of spurious drugs that causes grievous hurt or death be enhanced from life imprisonment to death and a fine of Rs 1 lakh or three times the value of drugs seized, whichever is more.

The report also incorporated other recommendation such as enhancing the penalty for manufacture and sale of spurious drugs to be enhanced from five years to not less than seven years and no bail be granted within the first three months of detention of an accused charged with offences related to the manufacture and sale of spurious drugs, among others.

Some of the most common fake drugs circulating in the market are antibiotics, drugs for tuberculosis, malaria and cough syrups. The crusade against spurious drugs also comes at a time when the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has made bar coding of medicines mandatory. This is being done to reduce medication errors.

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