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by Bharatha Malawaraarachchi

The Health Ministry has appointed a committee to look into issues concerning borderline drugs with a view to introduce a new legal frame work to strictly monitor such items.

This six member committee comprises three representatives from the Drug Evaluation Committee, one from the Sri Lanka Standard Institute and a nutritionist from the Medical Research Institute.

The committee will prepare a report on drugs and foods which are claimed to have nutritional and therapeutic value, said a Ministry official adding that the report will be completed within a month.

He said, there is a free flow of borderline drugs which are vaguely classified as food-cum-drugs and usage of such drugs has also considerably gone up over the last few years. " People are using such drug items which are claimed as anti-fat and cholesterol drugs, even without considering the possible health hazards, he added.

According to reports, there around 50 - 100 such items in the local market and some of them have not even been registered here.

"This has become a universal issue," said the official stressing that tough regulations are necessary to combat this emerging trend before it worsens.

He argued that there should be a clear cutoff point in order to differentiate such drugs from food items.

"There are some drugs which even claim to clean blood vessels and lower cholesterol. Stern action has to be taken to control the circulation of these drugs," they added.

Officials said a drug which claimed to reduce weight had caused severe health problems in Singapore, including liver failure. Some users had to even undergo kidney transplants.

A week ago, health officials detected a consignment of unregistered vitamin syrup from a wholesale distributor in Colombo. Officials claimed that the vitamin which falls into the category of B Complex with Enzyme Syrup contains a colour called 'amaranth red' which is not banned locally.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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