The Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) has recently found 48 drugs to be of ‘substandard quality’ and one drug has been found to be ‘spurious.’ In June this year, the drug regulator tested 1273, out of which 1225 were declared as of ‘standard quality.’
According to the drug alert list issued last week, Rantidine Tablets, Rosuvastatin and Vitamin D3 Tablets, Erythromycin Stearate Tablets IP, Paracetamol Tablets, Telmisartan, and Albendazole are some of the drugs that were flagged in the drug alert list as seen by Financial Express.com. The drug that was declared spurious is Heparin injection which is used to treat blood clots.
Meanwhile, 12 of the 48 drugs are linked to the pharmaceutical units of Himachal Pradesh. Flutrol 250 inhalation, used by asthma patients, was also found to lack the requisite assay content, as per the drug regulator.
Some of the highlighted drugs are used to prevent and treat harmful blood clots, asthma, blood pressure, swelling caused by heart disease, cough and peptic ulcers. Moreover, the drug regulator has also flagged two nutritional supplements used to prevent hair loss and another which helps in the formation of red blood cells.
According to the list, most of the flagged drugs either failed the dissolution test or lacked the requisite assay content.
Maxheal Pharmaceuticals, Zee Laboratories, Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd., Cadila Pharmaceuticals, Alkem Health Science (A unit of Alkem Laboratories Limited) are some of the manufacturers whose drugs were flagged by the drug regulator.
According to media reports, partial stop manufacturing has already been ordered in the case of Zee Laboratories. Meanwhile, Wings Pharma has also been ordered to stop manufacturing.
During the ongoing Parliament session, Bharati Pravin Pawar, Minister of State, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, stated that around 88,844 drug samples were picked and tested in the country out of which 2,545 drug samples were declared not of standard quality and 379 samples were declared spurious or adulterated during 2021-22.
