Placebos won146;t do

8216;8216;And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother8217;s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?8217;8217;

If Pakistan is numero uno in the heroin trade, India heads the list of infamy in another field 8212; according to the World Health Organisation, as much as 35 per cent of all spurious pharmaceutical drugs are manufactured in India. We, I should add, are also the fourth ranking nation 8212; some say third 8212; when it comes to the production of legitimate drugs. Sooner or later the first fact will have an impact on the second.

How? Well, consider this: Myanmar and Vietnam, for instance, import as much as 40 per cent of their pharmaceuticals from India because they believe Indian products offer a definite advantage in price while losing nothing in quality. They are wrong. Up to 11 per cent of what we are exporting 8212; and this again is a WHO figure that has not been contested 8212; is spurious. There is an excellent chance that some unfortunate patient in Southeast Asia is dying as you read this because a doctor has unwittingly administered a false drug.

This is a scandal that is just waiting to hit the headlines, and when it does it will take the reputation of the legitimate manufacturers down with it. India8217;s exports will then take a major hit. Yet taking on the pirates will not be easy, if only because these crooks have plenty of hard cash to buy protection for themselves.

According to official estimates, the manufacturers of doctored drugs make Rs 4,000 crore every year. This amounts to roughly 17 per cent of the pharmaceutical industry8217;s turnover, so we are obviously not talking about chicken feed. The legitimate manufacturers would be happy to support any measures taken by the authorities to clamp down on their pirate brethren. Most manufacturers, including Cipla, Dr Reddy, and Ranbaxy, are members of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance which has taskforces investigating complaints. They know that the Indian pharmaceutical industry is none too popular with its counterparts in the developed world 8212; who would be only too happy to play up any scandal.

Honesty demands that we acknowledge that the Americans, the Europeans and the rest have legitimate ground for their unhappiness. Successive Indian governments have protected the Indian pharmaceutical industry by refusing to accept 8216;8216;product8217;8217; patents, preferring 8216;8216;process8217;8217; patents. This may have led to cheaper drugs in the market but it also removed all incentive for Indian firms to spend anything on research and development. Foreigners would complain bitterly that the only work done in Indian laboratories was reverse engineering products produced by somebody else8217;s ingenuity and dedication.

The 8216;8216;product vs process8217;8217; issue and the question of whether First World firms are forcing reverse engineering by over-pricing their own drugs are debates that cannot be resolved soon. But this does not mean that we can also afford to let the contraband drugs trade carry on without hinder. Yet the laws of the land as they stand today are virtually useless. I am told that the Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940 does not even define what constitutes a 8216;8216;spurious8217;8217; product. What is more, the worst that anyone needs to fear even if he happens to be found guilty is 8216;8216;imprisonment for not less than three years and a fine of Rs 5,0008217;8217;. Does anyone think that this will strike fear into the hearts of the men collectively earning Rs 4,000 crore?

These profits are on the rise; counterfeiting, which began with spurious steroids and antibiotics, has moved on to super-speciality medicines used to treat the likes of cancer and diabetes. Believers in alternative systems of medicine need not feel smug. The menace of spurious drugs has spread to Ayurvedic, Unani and homeopathic medicines.

Can anything be done to stop this flood of counterfeits? The Mashelkar committee has recommended the death penalty for spurious drug manufacturers. This has met with general acclaim, but I am afraid it will not be enough. We shall still need to ensure that the death merchants are caught, that their trials do not drag on forever, and that the chemist 8212; the crucial link on the retail side 8212; is not exposed to the temptations of buying cheap stuff and of selling 8216;8216;medicines8217;8217; without a cash receipt. Will the authorities really establish special courts or enforce a value added tax regime as recommended?

Counterfeit drugs are actually a symptom of a greater disease 8212; the erosion of respect for the law. There are calls for extending the death penalty because ordinary punishments simply don8217;t work. Special courts are needed because the legal system is swamped. And let us not get started on a tax structure which merely serves as an incentive to corruption.

We celebrate Independence Day tomorrow. Ponder a little over what we have lost since the Drugs and Cosmetics Act came into being in 1940 8212; an era so innocent that it wasn8217;t considered necessary to define 8216;8216;spurious8217;8217;!