Dimapur, Aug. 10 (EMN): The commissioner and secretary for Health and Family Welfare, I Himato Zhimomi on Friday issued a suspension notice to M/S Drug Wholesalers Dimapur, over what was declared as “highly improper storage of essential drugs.”
The commissioner served the notice after an inspection in Dimapur on August 10. He informed that the M/S Drug Wholesalers were judged to have been using improper storage facility – ‘even the cold storage was old and rusted.’
Zhimomi told Eastern Mirror over the phone: “Medicines are more important than food items.” But if pharmacies were to supply such drugs, it cannot be tolerated, he asserted.
According to him, similar inspections conducted at other pharmacies were ‘satisfactory.’ However, he assured that such inspections will be conducted time and again.
Zhimomi denied that the surprise inspection was a result of complaint from patients. He said that he wants his drug inspectors to be more ‘proactive’ and monitor closely the quality of medicines sold.
The samples collected on Friday have been sent to the regional drug lab at Guwahati to check for adulteration, as there is no such facility in Nagaland. The result might take two to three weeks to arrive due to the technical process of testing, confirmation invloved, he said.
‘In any case, I hope the medicines are fine as we don’t want any adulterated medicines,’ he said.
Further, he informed that the M/S Drugs Wholesalers’ licence will remain suspended for a couple of weeks till full report is submitted from their end. ‘If medicines are found to be misbranded, adulterated or containing any other banned subtances, the particular wholesalers will be dealt with as per the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules of 1945, with penalty up to life imprisonment,’ he informed.
According to Zhimmomi, ‘cancelling their license is not an issue, but it is a matter of someone else’s life.’
