Banned Medicines Menace: a Peril to Public Health

Medical tourism and pharmaceutical boom are remarkable achievements of India over other countries due to hospitality, low cost quality treatment plans, easy research methodologies & less medico legal implications. Despite such major global responsibility, India is becoming a hub for the availability and usage of banned medicines. The proliferation of banned and harmful drugs in India is a serious problem for the health of people and there is an urgent need to curb it. A drug is banned on the basis of risk versus benefit ratio which is evaluated through post marketing surveillance and adverse drug reaction reporting systems. The medicines which have been labeled as silent killers overseas are making their space in India, indicating lack of knowledge among doctors and inefficient government policies. Drugs play a crucial role in saving lives, restoring health, preventing diseases and epidemics. When drug itself is harmful, it poses additive danger to the patient. Availability of such medicines over the counter is a grave problem. Medical profession is getting defamed and crippled in India because of various factors like self medication, unethical drug promotion, medical commercialization and unawareness among doctors. Until such issues are not sorted out the existing situation would prevail.