Govt forms panel to probe missing de-addiction pills

Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 29

With the controversy over missing five crore tablets of the de-addiction drug, buprenorphine nalaxone, refusing to die down, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today constituted a three-member committee to probe the matter.

The committee comprises STF chief Harpreet Singh Sidhu, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Kahan Singh Pannu and Director, Health Services, Dr Avneet Kaur. The committee will submit its report in three weeks.

The issue had remained a bone of contention between Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu and Additional Chief Secretary Anurag Aggarwal.

As per the order, buprenorphine naloxone is a key medicine used for the treatment of opioid addiction and is covered under the NDPS Act. As per the instructions issued by the Department of Health and Family Welfare to ensure proper and transparent accounting and dispensing of this medicine, centres distributing this medicine must be linked to government’s online registry system and every single tablet issued to a patient must be accounted for.

“However, a mismatch in the record was found when the data for the period between January 1, 2019, and November 19, 2019, was examined. Subsequently, show-cause notices were issued to private de-addiction centres,” the order read.

It further said since proper dispensing of medicines was an integral part of the overall strategy of the de-addiction programme in the state, the committee was being constituted on the Chief Minister’s orders to probe the matter.

Besides submitting its report to the Health Department within three weeks, the committee will also suggest measures to institutionalise a transparent procedure for dispensing the medicines, both in government and private de-addiction centres.