Stopping spurious drug manufacturing

Without a doubt, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had many receptive ears when he said on Sunday that those who sold spurious medicines deserve no leniency, and that action is being taken against people involved in that business. Three task forces have been constituted to purge the province of spurious medicines.
Chairman of a special Chief Minister's Task Force, Dr Saeed Elahi, told a review meeting that drug inspectors had collected 20,101 samples for laboratory analysis from pharmaceutical firms, and 30,283 from medical stores. So far 199 samples have been found to be substandard, and 49 fake. Another 755 cases of sale of medicines being sold post expiry date have also been uncovered.
37 FIRs have been registered against those involved in this reprehensible activity. These details show that the campaign is making good progress, and the scourge of substandard/spurious drug would soon be eradicated. Things, however, are not so simple. It needs to be recalled here that during his previous stint as chief minister, Mian Shahbaz Sharif had launched a similar campaign, which concluded in the declaration of a complete success.
But the activity did not take long to resurface with a new vigour because the profits to be had are too high and the regulatory as well as punitive system too weak to act as an effective deterrent. It is good to note that this time round there is also an attempt to improve regulation. Under consideration is a sensible-looking "one-hand guarantee" proposal.
Focusing on the wholesalers, it requires them to get a computerised receipt from manufactures carrying their contact details, which would make it easy to follow the trail of a fake medicine from pharmacists to distributors, and wholesalers all the way back to manufacturers. The punitive system in its present form is ineffectual. Notably, as part of the current campaign, 2,215 new cases of substandard medicines were sent to various drug courts for necessary action.
Out of these 1,149 have thus far been disposed of. More to the point, the proceedings have led to the imposition of a total fine of Rs 10.4 million on some manufacturers and dealers, which amounts to a mere wrap on the knuckles considering that substandard and spurious medicine often times include life-saving remedies as well as those needed to prevent life threatening diseases.
Things are unlikely to change unless the federal drug act is strengthened to ensure the culprits get punishments commensurate with the crime. Equally important, the drug courts must be duly empowered to deal with the pressures they are subjected to by influential wrongdoers. Towards that end, the provincial governments must provide judges of the drug courts good salaries and physical protection so that they can safeguard the public interest without fear or favour.