KOCHI: Ignorance is no bliss. It’s slow death. Millions of pill-popping poor in the state are at high health risk if the stinging statistics unveiled by the first National Drug Survey by the Union Ministry of Health and Welfare is any indication.
The survey conducted by the National Institute of Biologicals for 2014-16 found around 9.2 per cent of the total drugs sold through government supply chains and 2 per cent through retail outlets in the state were ‘not of standard quality’ (NSQ). Perspective? The national average is 10.2 and 3 per cent, respectively!
Terming the issue grave, Deputy Drugs Controller M R Pradeep gets to the heart of the issue. “Around 90 per cent of the medicines are purchased from manufacturers in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and J&K. They depend acutely on Chinese raw materials- 90 per cent.Like their toys, their raw materials too have short shelf life,” he tells ‘Express’.
With the small army of drug inspectors at the Drugs Control Department’s disposal, it’s impossible to keep tab on the over 25,000 government-run outlets and 3,000-odd retail outlets, he says.
Putting the national average to shame, another bummer in the report is 12 per cent of drugs supplied by the Kerala State Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd (KSDP) were found to be of substandard quality.
Meanwhile, questioning the sanctity of the report, KSDP managing director S Syamala says the awful storage facilities in government hospitals are a grey area.
“The survey never examined our control samples, which are compliant with the standards. The drugs sold at government supply chains are not kept at ambient conditions. Same is the case with government hospitals and hence they test NSQ.”
Bearing out her claims, a former District Medical Officer, on condition of anonymity, says, “Government hospitals are non-compliant with the stipulated storage standards. Large cartons are stacked in dingy rooms and in some cases batches of drugs are strewn around in store rooms. This critically compromises drug quality.”
Health Director R Ramesh says the department is investing a lot on upgrading the back-end infrastructure for sanitary drugs storage. “I’ll look into the findings of the survey. At present,we are conducting random checks in drug stores,” he says.
Taking pre-emptive measures, the Kerala Medical Services Corporation Ltd (KMSCL) will introduce bar coding for medicines soon, says KMSCL manager (quality control)Felix.
“If two batches of one product is found to be NSQ, then the supplier will be blacklisted. We have already barred one company and blacklisted around 45 products,” he says.