NEW DELHI: With multinational pharmaceutical companies approaching the World Health Organisation (WHO) once again to formulate guidelines which would put generic versions of patented drugs in the same bracket as unsafe and ineffective drugs, India has geared up to protect its generic (off-patent drugs) industry. In a WHO meeting scheduled later in the week, the country is prepared to thwart the MNCs’ attempts to get the organisation make definitions of counterfeits and spurious drugs interchangeable, a commerce department official has said.

Gurgaon: The Drug Control Department on Friday confiscated more than 2 lakh fake Ciprofloxacin tablets from a company called Chem Pharma in Gurgaon.

The department got information about the company on July 4. It collected samples from the company for testing, and the results that came on Friday showed the medicines were spurious.
Chem Pharma incidentally has the license to make the drug, but was not using the configuration for the drug.
 

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Thursday upheld the detention of 13 people under the Goondas Act in connection with the alleged spurious drugs case.

Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and D Hari Paranthaman, who dismissed all petitions on the habeas corpus petitions challenging the detention, said: "The acts alleged to have been indulged in by the detenus and other accused are shocking, posing danger to the public health and therefore, the interest of the state would definitely prevail over the individual liberty claimed by the detenus."

NEW DELHI: The government has made it mandatory for drugmakers to carry a barcode on every product exported out of the country to put an end to allegations overseas that some local firms ship out counterfeit medicines.

The new norms will be applicable from July 1, directorate general of foreign trade ( DGFT )), a commerce ministry arm said on Monday. Industry experts say the new rules will increase the cost of exports for Indian medicines and will impose a cumbersome compliance process.

NEW DELHI - Two recent reports by international health organizations have highlighted the disquieting magnitude of the counterfeit drugs market in India.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reckons that 75% of the world's total supply of fake drugs can be traced to India. The World Health Organization (WHO) pegs the figure at 35%.

NEW DELHI, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- India, the world's leading maker of generic drugs, is also a center for counterfeit and substandard medications, officials said.

With authentic-looking packaging and labelled with the names of legitimate companies like GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Novartis, the fake drugs are sold to Indian consumers and in developing nations around the world, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

India has raised strong concern over the delay in setting up a working group by the World Health Organisation to address the problems of counterfeit and substandard medicines and adopt changes in the policy, instead of leaving the task with controversial International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce (IMPACT).