Discount-hunting for medicines may be injurious to health, says drug manufacturers’ body chief

The lure of a discount may not be as healthy as it appears, say pharma industry representatives, cautioning consumers against hefty discounts on medicines.

Consumers need to be watchful when buying medicines with hefty discounts, because “knowingly or unknowingly, they may be creating a space that wrong elements fill,” said Viranchi Shah, President of the Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association (IDMA). Authorised retailers do not have the ability to give hefty discounts, because it cuts into their retail margins on scheduled (price-controlled) and non-scheduled medicines (at 16 and 20 percent, respectively), Shah told businessline, responding to concerns on spurious drugs that possibly circulate in the distribution channel.

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Drugs of subpar quality

Recently, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) had come out with its list of “Not of Standard” Quality (NSQ) drugs (for August), listing 50-plus samples. But four of the companies/brands mentioned on the list, including Sun Pharma, Glenmark, Alkem and Shelcal (Torrent Pharma) had clarified and told the stock-exchanges that the tested samples were spurious or counterfeit, raising concerns on how they can be identified.  

Not all discounts are bad, as some retailers may indeed be managing discounts through authentic sourcing from companies, Shah clarified. But when larger discounts bring in more consumers, it could create a space for the wrong kind of practices, he said, adding that retailers too need to buy from authorised stockists. Shah did not make a distinction between medicines sold by offline chemists and online aggregators/pharmacies.

Between looking for abnormal discounts and cross-checking the QR code on the label - consumers and retailers can check the authenticity of the medicine with the company, an industry-insider added.  

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GDP guidelines

Commenting on the NSQ list put out regularly by the Centre, Shah said, it revealed two kind of samples – those that did not meet specifications; and those that are spurious (not belonging to the company it claimed to be).  

The aim is to get to “zero-errors” in terms of meeting specifications, he said. But to weed out dangerous spurious drugs from the system, however small it’s incidence, the Centre has brought out draft Good Distribution Practices (GDP) for pharmaceutical products that cover transportation, storage, handling, recall etc, so that companies can track their products and undertake effective recalls, he said. This end-to-end traceability, through storage, transportation and retail, will make it difficult for wrong elements to enter the supply chain, he added.  

In February 2017, the Union Health Ministry had cited the national drug survey and said, “The percentage of NSQ Drugs in India has been found to be at 3.16 per cent and that of spurious drugs at 0.0245 per cent.”