At a time when
quality of Indian medicines is being questioned, a WHO agency has found that
only 2% of the medical products in Southeast Asia, including India, were
substandard or spurious against a global figure of 10.5%.
Effectively, it
means medicines and medical products available in India are safer than what is
available in American and European markets.
Nearly 10.5% of
the samples collected by WHO’s Global Surveillance and Monitoring System for
substandard and falsified medical products (GSMS) between 2013-17 failed
quality test, says the report released on Tuesday. It defines falsified medical
products as those that misrepresent identity, composition or source.
In the past
spotlight has largely been on lifestyle medicines such as slimming tablets, the
WHO findings show that everything — from cancer medicines to contraception, antibiotics
to vaccines — faces a quality problem across the world.
Substandard
drugs and vaccines up the risk of several diseases becoming difficult to treat
and the world left grappling with antimicrobial resistance, which is a growing
concern.
“There is clear
evidence that resistance to the most important antimalarial medicine,
artemisinin, first appeared in a part of the world where at one point between
38 and 90% of the artemisinin medicines on the market were substandard or
falsified,” says the report.
Nearly 1,500
cases from across the world, including India, were reported to the surveillance
team. The magnitude of the problem could be bigger as not all countries
reported cases.
The growing
global trade in medicines has also opened door to drugs, vaccines and other
medical products that do not meet quality standards and are even toxic at
times.
Online
pharmacies that are fast gaining popularity — in the US alone 19 to 26 million
people now buy medicines online — also pose a threat, as it makes it easier to
push poor quality drugs into even the best regulated markets.
The pharma
sector is doing its bit to ensure safety from fakes.
“Some of the
security features we have introduced for our products include bar coding for
track and trace, hologram and tamper-proof plastic trays with locking system
for pre-filled syringe products,” said Dr Krishna Ella, CMD, Bharat Biotech.
Bar coding and
hologram would also help check spurious drugs.
Launched in 2013
by the WHO, the Global Surveillance and Monitoring System aims to improve the
quality of medical products and aid in member countries.
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