The preliminary report of a high-powered 10-member committee to investigate the injection fiasco identified possibilities of contamination during re-filling/transportation or the drug itself.
After investigating the entire chain of events, the investigating committee ruled out every other possibility that may have caused eye infection that risked loss of eyesight among the medicine recipients. However, the exact reason for the drug reaction will be ascertained in the drug analysis report of the Drug Testing Laboratory, Lahore, which is expected to be submitted in the next 10 to 15 days.
The number of affected patients has reached 80 after more victims of drug scandals have come forth, and data has also been uploaded on the portal/dashboard established for this purpose.
Talking to The News, Punjab’s caretaker Minister for the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department, Dr Jamal Nasir, confirmed the findings of the committee’s preliminary report, saying that the use of a specific lot of this drug has been temporarily banned until the DTL releases its conclusions about the actual cause of contamination within the next couple of weeks.
“The other remaining batches of medicine, except this specific lot of injection, will remain available for the cancer patients, while there is no emergency for diabetic patients,” he said.
The Punjab government has arrested two accused on charges of their involvement in illegal re-filling and supply of medicine to other districts of Punjab. The accused, Bilal Rasheed and Asim Khalid of the local pharmaceutical company, have been arrested from Arifwala and Faisalabad, respectively.
