HC asks FDA to file reply on spurious drugs issue

Mumbai, July 13 (UNI) The Bombay High Court today directed the Food and Drug Administration to file a reply within six weeks on an expert committee's recommendations to curb the inflow of spurious drugs.

A division bench comprising justices R M Lodha and S J Vazifdar today also asked the laboratories in Mumbai and Aurangabad to expedite the analysis of drug samples collected from across the state.

Lakhapatrai Mehta had filed a public interest litigation in 2003 after his two sons met with an accident. One of his sons had died at KEM Hospital in Pune allegedly due to a spurious injection which had been purchased from the hospital's druggist.

A complaint was registered with the Pune police. But, the petitioner also moved the High Court as it was a serious issue.

The state today submitted a detailed affidavit stating that 7841 drug samples had been collected from across the state between April 1, 2005 and March 31 this year. Out of these, 673 samples were found to be sub-standard drugs while 22 samples were spurious. However, 2629 samples are still with the laboratories for analysis.

As regards the action taken, 112 cases have been filed while 113 more are yet to be filed. As many as 116 cases had been forwarded to the state for further action while 289 cases had been forwarded to other states concerned for them to take action. Forty-three samples had been sent to the Central Drugs Laboratory for further tests.

The court was also told that an expert committee had been appointed by the central government to recommend on how to deal with such matters and the report was submitted in August 2003.

The court has asked the FDA to consider the recommendations that were specifically for the states and confirm their opinion in six weeks.

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