Sri Lanka Dumping Ground for Garbage from Indian
Pharmaceutical Industry
Sri Lanka has become a convenient convenient dumping ground for the Indian Pharmaceutical industry.India does have reputed drug companies ,Ranbaxy, Reddy's Laboratory ,Cipla and Torrent to mention a few.
The names companies that manufactured the drugs claimed to be substandard are never heard of.There are three kinds of drugs dumped
1. Substandard.
2.Short expiry
3.Already expired.
In India drugs are are manufactured as a cottage industry in some lacations. A kilogram amoxicillin capsules and four thousand empty capsules are delivered to homes in the morning.In the evening 4000 capsules with 250 milligrams of amxicillin is collected.That is the mechanism of dead ants and fragments of hairs getting into the capsulesThis can be prevented by dealing only with drug companies who have got the GMP (good manufacturing practice) from the World Health Organisation.
Short expiry drugs expire in store houses after the State has paid the bill.The expired drugs are relabelled.Relabelling can be done in India or locally.To do relabelling here is cheaper.
The whole exercise is to make money the illegitimate way.Money is made by both Sri Lankans and Indians by both working in drug companies and State officials.
The people who are administered the drugs pay by their life or health.All of us pay a part of this money when the State establishments settle the bills
Pharmaceutical Industry
Sri Lanka has become a convenient convenient dumping ground for the Indian Pharmaceutical industry.India does have reputed drug companies ,Ranbaxy, Reddy's Laboratory ,Cipla and Torrent to mention a few.
The names companies that manufactured the drugs claimed to be substandard are never heard of.There are three kinds of drugs dumped
1. Substandard.
2.Short expiry
3.Already expired.
In India drugs are are manufactured as a cottage industry in some lacations. A kilogram amoxicillin capsules and four thousand empty capsules are delivered to homes in the morning.In the evening 4000 capsules with 250 milligrams of amxicillin is collected.That is the mechanism of dead ants and fragments of hairs getting into the capsulesThis can be prevented by dealing only with drug companies who have got the GMP (good manufacturing practice) from the World Health Organisation.
Short expiry drugs expire in store houses after the State has paid the bill.The expired drugs are relabelled.Relabelling can be done in India or locally.To do relabelling here is cheaper.
The whole exercise is to make money the illegitimate way.Money is made by both Sri Lankans and Indians by both working in drug companies and State officials.
The people who are administered the drugs pay by their life or health.All of us pay a part of this money when the State establishments settle the bills
posted by Sri Lankan Doctor at 6:38 AM
1 Comments:
Dear Doctor
In the blog post after this one you have claimed "..even the educated people are not aware that there is no differnce between different brands of the same drug.".
However, in this post you have stated that some brands of drugs are substandard. Doesn't this contradict your own statement?
Isn't it true that, for example, not all amoxycillin capsules have the same efficacy, safety, the same side effects or sometimes even amoxycillin? Can you remember the problem we had with govt. issue thyroxin capsules?
In medical school, we were taught that all brands are the same and that the generic name should be used in all prescriptions. In an enviroment with good drug regulation, where we can expect the authorities not to let in sub-standard brands, this is true.
However, in Sri Lanka the doctors have to choose the brands they prescribe to prevent the patients getting a bad deal. This does not have to be the original brand and certainly not the brand whoose Rep gives us gifts!
Generally, brands made by known companies (some of which you have mentioned) seem the best bet. They are not the cheapest found in the market but we know them to work well.
If we as doctors wash our hands off this expecting the govt. to have done its job we are doing a great disservice to our patients.
Don't you agree?
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