WHO shows interest in Guj's SMS model to check fake medicines

Ahmedabad: The World Health Organisation has shown interest in Gujarat’s SMS alert system of keeping a check on spurious medicines, a top health official said. As part of its e-governance initiative, the Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) had developed an SMS alert system through which all the stakeholders in the state could be notified of the recalled fake drugs. [caption id=“attachment_516557” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Pic used for representational purposes only.[/caption] This cost-effective model was launched in the state earlier this year to protect the patients from spurious drugs. “WHO has evinced interest in Gujarat’s SMS recall model for the spurious drugs. It plans to implement this cost-effective model for patient safety in the developing countries,” Gujarat FDCA Commissioner H G Koshia said. “We have submitted a concept note of this model to them, after the recent visit of Dr Veer Surya from WHO headquarters to Gujarat’s FDCA,” he said. Commenting on the model, Dr Surya had said that it was a viable tool to protect the patients’ health and could be implemented in the developing countries, Koshia said. This model has also been appreciated and praised by top executives of global pharma giants like US-based Abott Laboratories and Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical. WHO is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nation system, with over 150 countries as its members. Several Indian states are also in the process of replicating this model. The system has issued around 60 alerts so far on sub-standards drugs detected during random sampling done by the FDCA, asking chemists to stop the sale of such spurious medicine. PTI