Karnataka promises to destroy Rs 10 cr worth expired medicines

Khader found that  ₹10 Crore worth of medicines have been accumulating at warehouses around Karnataka for the last 13 years and they are all beyond the expiry date.

In an interview to Kannada Prabha he said, that there were no prescribed norms with regards to the destruction of expired medicines. A new policy has now been framed to this effect.

The expired medicines have been stored at Taluk level hospitals since the year 2000. Sending these expired medicines back to pharmaceutical companies is not an option as the possibility of it being misused cannot be completely ruled out and the government is, therefore, thinking of having them destroyed.

“These expired medicines will be destructed in accordance with the suggestions of the Pollution Control Board,”said Khader and has assured that a tender would be called to carry out its destruction within the next 6 months.

The committee has also decided to computerise the whole process of procurement and distribution of medicines within the next 6 months.

He believes computerization would help officials to keep track of the kind of medicines that are being distributed. This would also enable them to ascertain status of inventory for particular medicines.