DRAP recovers huge quantity of medicines stolen from NICVD, CHK

A huge quantity of medicines stolen from the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) and Dr Ruth KM Pfao Civil Hospital were seized when the National Task Force against Spurious Drugs raided various shops and a warehouse in the Katchi Gali and Hussainabad areas of Karachi on Monday.

“The National Task Force against Spurious Drugs of DRAP today raided various shops and warehouses in the notorious Katchi Gali in District South as well as the Hussainabad area and seized a huge quantity of medicines stolen from the Sindh government’s hospitals. Officials have also seized a large quantity of spurious drugs during these raids,” said the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), while talking to The News.

During the raid on Zeenat Extension in Katchi Gali, thousands of vials of injections, tablets and other medicines stolen from public hospitals in Sindh were recovered, DRAP chief Asim Rauf said, adding that a large number of spurious drugs were also found, which were being sent for the lab analysis for the investigation purposes.

“There were a large number of injectable and oral medicines, which were stamped with ‘Sindh government property; Sale Prohibited’, which indicates that these medicines were stolen from the public hospitals and sold to traders of Katchi Gali.” Rauf said it was a great success of DRAP officials who had finally reached the culprits involved in depriving deserving people of free medicines.

“This action was taken on the surveillance and efforts of our officials who spent several months to collect evidence and struck when all pieces of evidence were available. I would appeal to the people to report any such crime to DRAP’s toll-free number 0800-03727,” he said, promising that the identity of persons helping DRAP would not be disclosed.

DRAP officials disclosed that they had recovered medicines stolen from the NICVD and CHK, which included costly injections to give anesthesia to patients, as well as antibiotics, steroids and other categories of medicines. They added that drugs stolen from other healthcare facilities were also stolen during the raids.

“After months of surveillance, we have managed to seize medicines that were stolen from the NICVD, CHK and other health institutions. These medicines are stamped with names of institutions where they are supplied so that they could not be sold in the open market. This is a big success for DRAP,” said Najam-us-Saqib, additional director DRAP Sindh. He said the stolen medicines were recovered from eight to nine shops in Zeenat Extension in Katchi Gali and a warehouse in the Hussainabad area. and they included Restane, which is used for giving anesthesia, top-of the-line antibiotics and other important drugs.

“All these drugs as well as a huge quantity of spurious drugs have been confiscated, which are being sent to the lab for analysis. We are going to lodge criminal cases against those involved in the theft and other heinous crimes. There is big network involved in it and law-enforcing agencies are being taken into confidence for the arrest of culprits.”

Commenting on the recovery of the stolen medicines from the medicine market, an official of the Sindh government said some officials in the provincial drug administration and government’s central store in the II Depot could be behind the racket that was stealing medicines from hospitals and selling them in markets across the country.

“Some drug inspectors may be involved in the heinous crimes and law-enforcing agencies as well as the Anti-Corruption Establishment is being approached to launch a probe against them. There are also people in the stores of medical institutions as well as at the central medicine store who must be behind this crime. Nobody would be spared,” the official said.