Just the other day, BBC showed an expose of the counterfeit drugs in India and its operations. India is the world’s fourth largest pharmaceutical industry and the leads the counterfeit market. The footage shows interviews by two such manufacturers on how they work, bribe and network. (Tehelka could use a better video for secret filming. The BBC footage would’ve passed off as a normal interview but for the status message at the bottom).
One manufacturer even shows his unit and 40 qualified technicians skillfully preparing the potions. They are as good as the best in the industry, he avers(Which industry?). Other manufacturer, a woman, says she can prepare any combination and deliver it anywhere- Professional service guaranteed!
It’s unfortunate and disheartening that (at the risk of sounding immodest) a supposedly well informed urban educated ‘elite’ like myself have little clue of how big a problem it really is. (What does an elite do anyway other than blog it and discuss it endlessly?) Tuberculosis kills more Indians every year than any other infectious disease known. Why? The counterfeit drug with half to quarter the content of active ingredients in a genuine tablet (it translates to 200-400% increase in margins for manufacturers) increases the resistance of the pathogen stains for real drugs. In some cases, the active ingredients are substituted with paracetamol for cost cutting (aren’t we good at this?) One cannot but feel outraged that the woman says all this with such impunity.
The law awards death sentence for counterfeit manufacturers, but not one manufacturer has been caught so far. Perhaps it’s because of the difficulty to treat them at par with mass murderers (which they are), the system is happy to accept the bribes and leave them off the hook.
One would imagine exposes and the TRP it brings would make it a commercially viable option, if not a media’s responsibility to the society’s well being. But it’s bewildering that exposes are practically absent. Indian media gives more airtime to AIIMs and IITs strike against reservation or Finance Minister’s rhetoric to sooth the market (Is there any other country whose FM worries about stock market more than wasteful spending on education?). Which suits us fine- bright young students hitting the streets against the government looks better on TV than some unknown manufacturers increasing the resistance of pathogens and responsible for the deaths of poor sick patients in some corner of the country.
Who cares about bacteria anyway?
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3 comments:
India is only one among many countries where the pharmaceutical industy is exploiting the underprivileged masses. I wonder if you saw "The Constant Gardener" a movie based on a John Le Carre novel that exposes the callous nature of human beings that conduct clinical trials on the unsuspecting poor in countries in Africa.
The fact that the network is hand in glove with the corrupt industry surely places India in a higher notch of moral degradation!
enjoyed reading the artcile dude....
Never ever ask "who cares about bacteria" as long as I am around :D
but well.. you have a point really since most research seems to be focussed more on "more complex" eukaryotic systems and on diseases that are thought to be induced by genetic causes, such as seevral forms of cancer.. but i did happen to read that there is a strong association between the chronic disease of the central nervous system, multiple sclerosis and a pneumonia bacteria (with a name I had never heard of before).. so well, I do have a job!!
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