Inaction Is Expensive

Context: Hoarding, black-marketing of essential medical supplies, as seen during the pandemic, stem from systemic flaws.

Steps taken to check spurious drugs

• Capacity building: The World Bank assisted Capacity Building Project to upgrade testing facilities and to establish new drug testing laboratories so as to enhance the capacity of laboratories to test large number of samples.
• Stringent penalties: The DCA, 1940 has recently been amended by the Drugs & Cosmetics (Amendment) Act, 2008.
  • Some offences have become non-bailable.
  • There are specially designated courts and regulatory infrastructure has been strengthened.
  • There is also a whistle-blower scheme.

Regulatory issues in the delivery of essential medical supplies

• Hoarding and black-marketing: Across the country, there have been arrests for diversion, hoarding and black-marketing of remdesivir, oximeters and oxygen cylinders.
• Fake medicines: A study done by Assocham estimating that one-third of drugs sold in India are fake.
  • There is also the example of fake remdesivir (and possibly azithromycin) produced in Kotdwar (Uttarakhand)
  • There are centres in and around Delhi (Bahadurgarh, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida, Sonepat) and Aligarh, Bhiwadi, Hisar and Agra, developing fake medicines.
• Failure of legal provisions: While the Drugs and Cosmetics Act (DCA) has different categories of misbranded, adulterated and spurious drugs, the level of enforcement in many States has been far from satisfactory. - Mashelkar Committee 2003.
  • Implementation and the varying levels of competence of the regulatory officials were the main reasons for satisfactory performance.
  • The problems in the regulatory system in the country were primarily due to inadequate or weak drug control infrastructure at the State and Central level.
  • Prosecution cases pertaining to offences related to spurious drugs remain undecided for years.

Way Forward:

• Discriminate between a hoarder and black-marketeer: A hoarder is anyone who stocks up items. Thus, the crime isn’t hoarding per se but selling a drug without a licence.
  • Incidentally, courts have ruled police officers can’t register FIRs, arrest and prosecute (for cognisable crimes) under this law. That’s the job of drugs inspectors.
  • The notion of a black market is different, though the two can be related.
    • For instance, it can be a shadow market where one evades taxes.
    • But in this context, it means charging a premium when there is a shortage. A black market occurs when the price at which a product is sold is higher than an administratively determined price.
• There is no greater deterrent than a ‘severe’, ‘sure’ and ‘swift’ punishment.”