Spurious drugs being sold

KOLKATA: A patient goes to the chemists with a prescription. The man across the counter says that one of the drugs prescribed is unavailable but offers a substitute which, he claims, is just as effective.
A week later, the patient returns to his doctor but his symptoms persist.
The doctor is confused — was his diagnosis wrong or has the patient not been taking the right medicines ?
On going through the medicines purchased by the patient, the doctor comes to know that the alternative supplied by the chemist was spurious.
“The patient suffers and starts to mistrust the doctor. We insist that patients always get a cash memo but unfortunately a large number them are illiterate and do not understand,� said noted cardiologist Subir Saha.
According to industry sources, nearly 20 per cent of the Rs 17,000 crore drug market is controlled by spurious and duplicate products.
This is just in monetary terms. Actually, spurious drugs are much cheaper than the real ones — thereby, fabulous amounts reach the market,� said Kashyap Nansi, product manager of Wockhardt Merind.