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Surge in fake medicines in retail markets leaving druggists distraught: Traders' body
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....urge in fake medicines in retail markets leaving druggists distraught: Traders' body<BR>PTI News<BR>Dated:- 6-3-2025<BR>PTI<BR>Kolkata, Mar 6 (PTI) The country has witnessed an alarming surge in counterfeit medicines flooding retail markets, a spike of nearly 50 per cent over and above the estimated figures from the COVID-19 years, according to the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists ....
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....(AIOCD). The traders’ body attributed this rise to a combination of factors, including consumers’ preference for high-discount drugs, inadequate government vigilance, and "lenient" prohibitive laws. These allegations come just days after disturbing reports of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) listing multiple batches of 63 common drugs — produced by various pharmaceut....
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....ical companies across the country — that failed quality tests. "Counterfeit and substandard drugs were always available in the market, but their share never exceeded 10 per cent of the total amount of medicines that is retailed. Of late, that figure has risen sharply, to nearly 15 per cent of the total medicines available in the market. That's a hike of nearly 50 per cent and poses significant ....
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....threat to public health and safety," said Sankha Roy Chowdhury, spokesperson and former president of Bengal Chemists and Druggists Association (BCDA), the state chapter of the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD). The BCDA, arguably the country's oldest traders' organisation founded in 1921, currently has membership strength of over 40,000 drug retailers and wholesalers across....
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.... Bengal, office bearers claimed. "Fake medicines are pouring in from various parts of the country like Kanpur, Agra, Delhi and Patna," Roy Chowdhury alleged. Officials of the organisation blamed the increasing attraction among consumers as well as among drug wholesalers and retailers for hefty price discounts on medicines as the primary cause for sharp influx of adulterated medicines in the mark....
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....et. "The government has set a cap on profit margins, 10 per cent for wholesalers and 16-20 per cent for retailers, on MRP of scheduled drugs. Anyone offering higher discounts than that should be treated with utmost suspicion. There is, however, little awareness among ordinary consumers who are easily attracted towards hefty discounts and the medicine shops are also falling for the fake drug trap ....
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....to tide past the ever-increasing and uneven market competition," said Prithwi Bose, general secretary, BDCA. Officials maintained that the spike in distribution of fake medicines has been observed since the introduction of GST in July, 2017. "The uniformity in tax structure made movement of medicines from one state to another much easier than before. The first casualty in this was the supply of ....
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....quality medicine. No one cared about the quality and storage as long as they came with high discount offers," Roy Chowdhury said. Calling the flourishing business of injecting substandard medicines to unsuspecting patients tantamount to "committing murder", the official pointed fingers at the alleged "inadequacies" of The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, which regulates import, manufacture, distrib....
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....ution and sale of drugs in this country for the violations with impunity. "Despite multiple amendments to the governing law, the maximum punishment for distribution and sale of fake drugs is imprisonment of up to three years. In most cases, suspects are released on bail much before that," he added. "There is a provision, though, of awarding 10 years imprisonment to the guilty if it is found that....
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.... a patient died from consumption of fake medicine, but such cases are immensely difficult to prove. There's an urgent necessity for a more stringent law," he added. Officials also blamed the "slackness" in government vigilance to deter the inflow of drugs in the retail market, which fails to meet quality control standards. "There's hardly any effective machinery of the Centre and the states to s....
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....top the crime. They don't even have the required budgets to set the necessary infrastructure. That's why such activities are carried out with impunity," he said. Dr Narayan Banerjee, a medicine specialist, while stating that the high inflow of spurious drugs in local markets would have far-reaching adverse repercussions on public health, blamed the sharp increase in the price of life saving drugs....
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.... in the country in recent times for people's allurement towards low-priced alternatives. "India is the world's diabetes capital. Every third person in this country suffers from blood pressure-related issues. There has been a sharp but silent increase in the price of medicines like insulin. In our country, where the majority of people have low income and lie around the poverty level-mark, health i....
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....s compromised over other necessities of life," Dr Banerjee said. Holding the government machinery accountable for the necessary checks and balances in this sensitive field, the doctor added: "I have serious doubts on whether the governments, both at the Centre and at the states, are going enough to curb this menace." Bose maintained that the water level seems to have crossed the danger mark on t....
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....his issue, requiring urgent intervention from power corridors coupled with programmes to enhance public awareness. "One can ask for greater discounts on shoes and clothing, but not on medicines," he said. PTI SMY MNB<BR> News - Press release - PIB....