No spurious drugs in TN: Panneerselvam

Chennai, Dec 7 (UNI) Tamil Nadu Health Minister M R K Panneerselvam today asserted there was no sale of spurious drugs in the State.

In a chat with newspersons, after inaugurating the country's first-ever Drug Information and Pharmaco Vigilance Centre, set up by the Drugs Control Authority here, he said, ''If there is any such practice, the Government will take steps to control it.'' The Minister also said with the aim of preventing sale of spurious drugs, the new centre was launched to create an awareness among the people, who could approach it to know details of the drugs they were being prescribed by doctors.

Earlier, speaking on the occasion, Mr Panneerselvam said that during the previous AIADMK regime, about 45 per cent of posts in Government Hospitals remained vacant.

After the DMK Government came to power, almost all vacancies were filled up and the balance of 320 posts would be filled up in the next 10 days. ''Steps had already been initiated in this regard,'' he added.

Health Secretary V K Subburaj said the centre, set up jointly by the Directorate of Drug Control and the Tamil Nadu Pharmacy Council, would function as a liaison centre, and would be operated by a Pharmacologist with M Pharm qualification, besides a graduate and diploma holder in Pharmacy.

The centre could also be used by doctors and other professionals to get relevant information about drugs. It was aimed at educating the people about spurious drugs and the public could lodge complaint with it about prevalence of any spurious drugs in the market.

UNI