Bangalore, 4 Jan: Karnataka drugs control department has received clearance from the State government to implement the project on drug sampling. The project is expected to help assess the quality of drugs and check the sale of not-of-standard quality medicines in circulation.
Karnataka will be second state in the country after Andhra Pradesh to implement the drug sampling drive which tested about 530 samples and found around only 11 drugs to be not-of-standard quality.
The department is now in the process of identifying the about 5-10 category of drugs of varied therapeutic segments to be selected at random. These drugs will be tested at any of the laboratories which are government approved and could be in the private sector.
The drugs control department which had sent in a proposal to seek a Rs.15 lakh grant to implement the project will now gear up to carry out the massive drug sampling exercise across all the 30 districts which would associate the public, non-governmental organizations and consumer forums. The drug samples will be drawn from retail and wholesale outlets at random and will be tested at various approved labs to verify whether they are spurious and substandard.
The department's 36 circles located across the state will go to the outlets located in the villages, talukas and districts along with the non governmental organizations who will pick the samples at random and send them for testing at any of the labs across the state. "We have also sought permission from the Food Drugs Administration department of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to grant the consent for testing of these drugs at the facilities located there, Dr BR Jagashetty, Drugs Controller, Government of Karnataka told this reporter.
"We have planned a massive drive for test and analysis either accompanying the enforcement officers during their random inspection drive or independently by the said organizations", he added.
AS earlier reported that the state drugs control department presented a detailed project report to the State Health Family Welfare department secretary to seek the required budget to undertake the project.
The objective of the drug sampling is to create an increased confidence level among the patients and public, apart from the consumer forums and the NGOs. It will also make sure that the state drugs regulatory body has been ensuring a transparent environment. The extent of inspections and the testing parameters will all be highlighted along with the information on the action taken on the violator. The big task on hand is to weed out the presence of spurious and substandard drugs, said Dr Jagashetty.
The drug sampling drive comes close on the heels of the department's successful exercise on its 171 blood banks across Karnataka carried out last year. In this drive members of a consumer forum accompanied the inspectors to assess the quality standards, availability of blood components and safe blood bank practices.
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