The issue of substandard medicines in Lahore has terrorised the masses in the most-populated city of the country where, according to medicine traders, the buyers’ confidence has been badly shaken.
Alarmed by the death of over 100 patients treated for cardiac disorders in Lahore hospitals, the people have become scared of purchasing life-saving drugs and are refraining from even using simple pain killers, said Wholesale Chemist Council of Pakistan (WCCP) President Atif Billo, talking to Pakistan Today.
The trader, who runs a wholesale medicine shop at Jodia Bazaar, said that due to a deepening sense of insecurity among the buyers, business activities in the medicine markets are reducing and have shrunk by around 20 to 30 percent.
“As the people are spreading text messages suggesting precautions in a self-protecting manner, the provincial government is yet to provide a list of sub-standard medicines to the businessmen,” Billo said, adding that people are asking about branded medicines and prefer to buy foreign life-saving drugs.
Transparency International (TI) Adviser Adil Gilani says 80 percent of the medicines being used in the country are substandard.
Sources in the medicine market told Pakistan Today that the provincial government has banned some life-saving drugs in the city.
“The names of the medicine banned are Cardiovestin (simvastain), Alfagril (clopidogrel), Concort (amlodipine), Soloprin (aspirin), Panadol and Ponstan,” they said.
The drugs fall under the categories of cholesterol-lowering, anti-hypertensive, beta-blockers and blood-thinners, which are in certain combinations prescribed largely to heart disease patients, the sources said, adding that all drug inspectors had been intimated for immediate withdrawal of the drugs.
According to the Punjab Health Department spokesman, 287 patients are still admitted to various hospitals, with 39 at the Jinnah Hospital, 14 in Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, 94 in Services Hospital, 77 in Lahore General Hospital, 62 in Mayo Hospital and one in the Kot Khwaja Saeed Hospital.
Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Lahore alleges that around 600 unregistered factories and companies in Punjab, registered under the federal government, are not under the control of the provincial government.
“There is no mechanism to ensure control over the quality and prices of medicines. The government should purchase only those medicines for the public-sector health facilities, which are available at multi-chain pharmacists,” the sources said.
