Dawn Court reporter + Dawn TV
Rawalpindi: The Rawalpindi Drug Court has sentenced the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and other employees of a pharmaceutical company to imprisonment and heavy fines for finding a drug ‘substandard’, the first in Pakistan’s history.
GlaxoSmithKline (regarded as one of the most trusted and well-known companies in Pakistan and around the world) denied such allegations and said that it would appeal against the court’s decision at the Appellate Forum.
According to the report, the complaint regarding the ‘non-standard’ of the drug was filed by the Provincial Inspector of Drugs Tehsil Hasan Abdal.
He said that in 2018, another drug inspector named Uzma Khalid took a sample of the drug ‘Septran’ (Batch No. HSBDS) manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, which was sent to the drug testing laboratory in Rawalpindi. This medicine was found substandard.
The court indicted company representatives in February 2023, but all accused pleaded not guilty to the charges and faced trial.
GlaxoSmithKline, which has a net worth of $82.38 billion, has production and quality control units in place, yet it has not taken any steps to stop marketing the drug, the ruling said. inquired about the manufacture of substandard medicines.
The court convicted the company’s CEO, production manager, quality control manager, and warrantor.
The CEO was sentenced to imprisonment till the adjournment of the court and a total fine of Rs 47 lakh, in default of which he may face 3 months imprisonment.
