Pune: Maharashtra govt this week ordered immediate, machine-grade quality checks of medicines at all govt hospitals to stamp out counterfeiting, after a series of raids indicated fake medicines were likely being sold to the public.On Wednesday, health minister Prakash Abitkar directed health authorities to deploy “counterfeit drug-detection devices” and form dedicated teams to inspect medicine stock at all govt facilities, from primary health centres to full-fledged district hospitals.The directive came days after Thane police seized fake medicines worth Rs 2.8 lakh. Two people were arrested. Months earlier, state FDA raided a Pune wholesaler and recovered spurious drugs valued at Rs 2.7 lakh. Over the past year, licences of 176 retailers and 39 wholesalers have been cancelled across Maharashtra for stocking substandard medicines. Hundreds of samples were also flagged as “not of standard quality” during routine testing.Abitkar told senior health officials on Wednesday that systems were being “strengthened to ensure absolutely no compromise on quality of medicines being provided to citizens”.“Trained pharmacist teams will carry out preliminary screening of medicine inventories using portable detection machines. The first phase of inspections will be completed within three months. The move is designed to plug gaps between procurement and patient use, catching bad batches before they reach bedsides,” he said during the meeting at the Directorate of Health Services, Mumbai.For a second layer of scrutiny, the minister also ordered the setting up of an independent laboratory system to verify quality of medicines supplied by vendors. “This will run parallel to on-site checks, creating a two-tier safety net for public hospitals,” he said.Officials present at the meeting included Dr Bapu Pawar, CEO of the State Goods Procurement Authority; Dr Nitin Ambadekar, director of health services (Mumbai); Dr Vijay Kandewad, director of Health Services (Pune) and joint director Sunita Golhait.
