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238 National Drug Control Master Plan (2012-2015), the government of Pakistan
aimed to mainstream drug treatment and rehabilitation services into the health
system. He also stated that people with drug use problems should receive
effective and humane treatment and that drug use should be considered a
medical problem and users treated like patients suffering from any other disease.
Health
Mismanagement and lapses
PIC scam
In January 2012 tainted drugs at a cardiac facility in the city of Lahore
claimed more than 100 lives. In mid-January several cardiac patients registered
with PIC (Punjab Institute of Cardiology) started showing up at different
public and private hospitals in Lahore suffering from a sudden drop in platelets
and white blood cells and bleeding from different parts of body. Initially, it
was taken as a symptom of another dengue outbreak after the one in 2011 but
it was soon realized that the symptoms were of a reaction to a drug which
was being distributed by PIC free of charge. Investigations found that the
license of one of the pharmaceutical companies supplying the drug to PIC had
long expired and yet it was continuing supplying drugs to government hospitals
and the open market. Tests carried out by British Medicines and Healthcare
Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) in the United Kingdom indicated that
Isotab, one of the five suspected drugs, was contaminated. The report also
showed that Isotab contained pyrimethamine which is in fact used for the
treatment of malaria. The presence of pyrimethamine proved to be toxic. The
pharmaceutical factory manufacturing the contaminated drug was sealed and
names of the owners added to the Exit Control List. The Pakistan Medical
Association (PMA) noted that a lapse in quality control while acquiring medicines
was the main reason for the deaths caused by the drug reaction and called
upon the federal and provincial governments to establish drug regulatory
Protest against death by spurious drug.