Kolkata: The Bengal Chemists & Druggists Association (BCDA) has claimed that there has been a spurt of fake drugs in the market after the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the organisation, affiliated to the All-India Organisation of Chemists & Druggists (AIOCD), as many as 145 drugs from various companies have failed quality assurance tests. Of these, 52 drugs failed the Central Drug Control Laboratory’s tests, while 93 widely used drugs failed state-level drug control tests.
Addressing a press conference in Kolkata on Friday, Sankha Roy Choudhury, the official spokesperson of the BCDA, said: “Post Covid, there has been an increase in counterfeit drugs by 47%. The reason is implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Before GST, tax policies were different for states. After GST, drugs are moving across states. Most fake medicines seized in West Bengal are manufactured in other states, such as Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.”
“There has been an alarming increase in the availability of fake drugs in the state and the country,” Choudhury said. BCDA has a membership of over 40,000 in West Bengal.
His statement came a day after the AIOCD announced that India has witnessed an alarming increase in counterfeit medicines. There has been a spike of nearly 50% over and above the “estimated figures from the Covid-19 years,” the organisation said.
The organisation attributed this rise to a combination of factors, including consumers’ preference for high-discount drugs, inadequate government vigilance, and ‘lenient’ prohibitive laws.
“We are really worried and concerned. We want to fight this menace. Recently,144 drugs have been declared as substandard. If you look at the list of the medicines closely, most of them are supplied to hospitals, while a few are sold from our counters,” Choudhury said, urging all stakeholders to come forward to fight the menace.
“The proliferation of counterfeit medicines is a ticking time bomb, and we cannot afford to wait. We urge the government to strengthen regulatory measures, enhance enforcement, and increase public awareness to combat this menace,” Prithwi Bose, general secretary, BCDA, said.
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