Dikshit promises action plan on spurious drugs

NEW DELHI - Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Saturday promised to prepare an action plan to check the menace of spurious drugs in the national capital.

Addressing a seminar on measures taken to combat counterfeit drugs here, she said these drugs are hazardous and fatal and there should be a policy of no tolerance towards them.

“It is also the need of the hour to have an adequate testing laboratory to ensure that the suspected samples are tested expeditiously,” the chief minister added.

Dikshit said the State Drug Control Department will be strengthened, and urged the All India Drugs Control Officers Confederation to make every effort to check the spread of counterfeit medicines.

She also recommended stringent enforcement of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and said that the pharmacists must ensure that their sources of drug supply were reliable.

Delhi Health Minister Kiran Walia recommended starting a toll free helpline to receive complaints of spurious drugs.

India is the third largest producer of pharmaceuticals in the world and thirteenth in terms of value.