Pharma hub ailing

Even as regulatory clearances were initially fast-tracked for the many industrial units coming up to promote and protect the emerging Baddi-Barotiwala pharmaceutical hub of Himachal Pradesh, the belt is now, sadly, acquiring notoriety for housing dubious drug-makers. In the past three months alone, there have been three incidents of seizure of spurious drugs, and all traced to non-licensed units. In 2020, the local pharma industry had roiled under the impact of the death of 13 children, of them 12 were from Jammu and one from Baddi. after consuming a cough syrup that was traced to a Baddi manufacturer. The public and the local pharma industry are still roiling from the impact of the death in 2020 of 13 children — one from Baddi and 12 from Jammu — after consuming a cough syrup that was traced to a Baddi manufacturer. In fact, the area has been under the drug authorities’ scanner for decades with fake and substandard medicines produced here repeatedly finding their way to markets across the country and unsuspecting consumers.

It points to alarming gaps, including gross negligence and criminal intent, lack of proper checks and an unholy nexus between the manufacturers and the authorities concerned. Some doctors, too, are known to compromise and give in to the incentives offered by pharmaceutical firms brimming with ill-begotten wealth. Stacked against these challenges that are compounded by the systemic problem of understaffed departments of drug control and regulation, law enforcement suffers. Putting paid to any long-lasting solution or deterrence are the long-winded legal tangles in dealing with the offenders. While the accused firm loses the licence for the medicine in question, it is normally business as usual for its other products. The criminals seem to be ahead of the system as they are going high-tech, rendering drug inspectors ill-equipped to easily detect anything amiss. This was evident in the September raid by Drugs Control Administration officials on a firm that had only a food manufacturing licence but was producing fake blood pressure pills of a popular company. It had even adroitly copied the QR code to make the tablet strips look like the original ones.

The industry is definitely ailing. Considering that at stake are people’s health and lives, the lapses are criminal. The authorities must pull out all the stops to end this menace.