Working of drug testing lab goes to the dogs

MN Report

KARACHI- Working of Sindh Drug Testing Laboratory (SDTL), tasked with the job of ensuring that medicines being manufactured and available in markets of the province are of quality, has been badly affected in the absence of its two senior officials, it was reliably learnt.

According to sources, posts of two senior officers – one director and a deputy director – have been lying vacant since long and the authorities concerned have, so far, failed to appoint officials against these vacant posts. “In fact, the SDTL’s director retired more than a month ago whereas the post of the organization’s deputy director had been lying vacant for the last three years,” the sources added.

Asked in what way the vacant posts had been affecting the SDTL’s performance, the sources said that when a drug is tested at the lab to check whether it met the quality standards or was spurious, substandard and expired, its report is required to be signed by its director as well as by deputy director and since nobody is holding the charge of these two posts, such reports remain unsigned.

The sources pointed out that if a lab report remained unsigned for 90-days, it loses its veracity and is of no value. 
Elaborating, the sources confided that the officials responsible for collecting drug samples from pharmaceutical companies and markets for carrying out their lab tests are taking no interest in their job as they knew that their exercise will bear no fruits.

Sindh health secretary could not be contacted for his version concerning the fate of the SDTL.