KARACHI – Nine medicines used for the treatment of cancer have been declared fake, substandard, and illegal by the Sindh Drug Testing Laboratory.
Director of the Sindh Drug Testing Laboratory, Syed Adnan Rizvi, said action had been initiated following the laboratory’s findings.
Rizvi revealed that some of the cancer medicines did not contain the required active pharmaceutical ingredient, while others lacked a Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) registration number.
He further alleged that some oncologists write the names of specific pharmacies on their prescriptions, leaving patients with no option but to purchase medicines from those outlets.
Rizvi warned that counterfeit and substandard cancer drugs pose a serious threat to patients’ lives. He said fake cancer medicines can render treatment ineffective and increase the risk of disease progression.
