The Medicine Box | How are hospitals dealing with spurious drugs?

Spurious drugs are a concern for hospitals with hospitals undertaking procurement directly from distributors and random testing to prevent it.

In this CNBC-TV18 special series, 'The Medicine Box', Dr. Naresh Trehan, Chairman & MD at Medanta; Dr Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, MD & CEO, Fortis Healthcare and Suneeta Reddy, Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals talk about the concern around spurious drugs and means to tackle them.

Dr Raghuvanshi said this is a grave concern and needs to be taken care of. “For the hospitals themselves to be sure that nothing breaks in the supply chain, is rather difficult. The only thing we can do and what we try to do all the time is that we have very reputed distributors only. Then from time to time, we do some random testing as well. But still things can go under the radar," he said.

He added that spurious drugs have to be prevented by authorities. “If it is coming directly from the company, usually we feel more secure. So, then the responsibility lies with the company and generally the reputed companies which we deal with, they make sure that it is taken care of,” he said.

Suneeta Reddy said the company started the pharmacy chain because they were conscious of spurious and outdated drugs. “If you look at the way that our purchasing is done, there is a very strict guideline, and which is why most of the time even our generics that we sell, we have been very, very careful in quality testing. We don't, in fact, sell the largest amount of generics as yet, like the others too, because we are very very careful on quality,” she said.

Meanwhile, Dr Trehan believes that the distribution system in not the culprit.  “We buy straight from the companies, who we know are reputed. They have a stake like we have a stake. So if you see what a brand means to a person. A well-established brand just tells you one thing that mostly their products will be standardized,” he said.