Doctors call street protests against drug scam

Flaying Jammu and Kashmir government for its alleged failure to take action against those involved in spurious drug scam, Doctors Association of Kashmir today called for street protests to bring the accused to book.
"The spurious drug scam is a very deep rooted conspiracy to kill Kashmiris. Otherwise the people and policy makers behind this would have been sacked," President of the DAK association Dr Nissar-ul-Hassan told reporters here.
He called for street protests to bring the culprits behind the scam to justice.
"This is a fight against murderers. I urge the people especially youth to come out on the roads to protest and force these murderers out of the sacred valley," he said.

He asked Bar Association, Trade Unions and Civil Society to join hands and fight this menace unitedly.
He alleged even after the crime committed has been established beyond doubt, there have been no arrests and no official has been questioned.

He demanded that former Health Minister Sham Lal Sharma, who is now minister for Public Health Engineering, should step down to ensure a free and fair probe into the alleged scandal.
The DAK President displayed drug analysis reports of two drugs in question - Maximizen 625 and Curecef 1000 - which say that both the drugs are not of standard quality as defined in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.

The report of the drug Curecef 1000 (Ceftriaxone Sodium) suggested that the drug showed presence of particulate matter, he said adding "which is very dangerous to human life".
Another report of a sample of Maximizen 625 (Amoxycillin Trihydrate) shows that the sample contains 0 mg (zero per cent) of the Amoxycillin salt.
He said "though there is no epidemiological data by which we could say exactly as to how many patients might have died by use of these fake drugs but so many deaths at premier hospitals might have been caused by these drugs."
Earlier, on April 5 the state government has blacklisted the pharmaceutical company Life Line Pharamaco Surgical Ltd and cancelled its drug licence for supplying substandard antibiotic medicines meant for government hospitals.