New Delhi. As part of the ongoing campaign against sub-standard medicines across the country, 111 medicines were found to be of low quality in November. Apart from this, two medicines were found to be fake during investigation. Among the samples of fake medicines, one was found from Ghaziabad and the other from Bihar. The Union Health Ministry has started legal action in case of low quality and counterfeit medicines.
According to a senior Health Ministry official, during testing in the laboratory of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) in November, samples of 41 medicines were found to be of substandard quality. In the tests conducted in the states, samples of 70 medicines did not meet the standards. The senior officer said that the samples of these medicines are from a special batch, which have been collected from shops and distributors and tested. This does not mean that the quality of these medicines present in the market is not up to standard.
The samples of two medicines which were found to be fake from Ghaziabad and Bihar were manufactured by some unknown company in the name of a big company. The real company making these is being ascertained. In case of fake medicines, there is a provision of minimum 10 years or maximum life imprisonment for the accused.
It is worth noting that in the month of October, the quality of samples of 56 medicines in the central laboratory and samples of 24 medicines in the state laboratories was found to be below the standard. The senior official said that the scope of testing of drug samples in the states has increased in November and more states are testing the samples and sending their reports. For this reason, the number of samples of low quality medicines tested by states in November has increased almost three times.
