53 commonly-used medicines fail central drugs control body's tests, 3 found to be spurious

Drugs Alert: In random quality checks undertaken by authorities, it has been found that out of the 1306 samples taken by the government's drug department for testing, 51 samples failed the quality test and three samples were found to be spurious. Authorities conduct periodic checks by taking random medicine samples from the market and a report is released every month after conducting quality checks. And the shocking outcome of the quality control test was recently uploaded to the website of Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO)— which comes the under Directorate General of Health Services - Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. In the report released by the regulator in August, while 51 samples failed muster, three were found to be spurious — meaning the commonly consumed drug could do more harm than good to the person consuming it. 

Among the medicines that failed the government's test include antacids, medicines used to treat fever, antibiotics and many drugs that are commonly available at the neighbourhood chemist store. 

Drugs that failed the test

The drugs that failed the quality test include antibiotics — Amoxicillin & Potassium Clavulanate tablet, medicines for high blood pressure treatment — Amlodipine and Atenolol, diabetes drug Metformin Hydrochloride, antacid Rabeprazole and folic acid medicine.

As per the report, batches of Pantoprazole Gastro Resistant Tablet IP — PAN 40 — were found to be fake. Apart from this, batches of Gastro Resistant Pantoprazole and Domperidone Prolonged Release Capsules — that are sold under brand name "Pan D" — were also found to be spurious. However, the manufacturers of these three medicines have told the authorities that the batch numbers that were found to be spurious had not been produced by them. Authorities are investigating these claims. 

Total number of samples checked in the month of July - 1306 
Samples that passed the quality check - 1252 
Samples that did not pass the checks - 51
Samples found to be completely fake - 3

Earlier, in the month of March this year, central and state regulators had come down heavily on drugs manufacturers. And after conducting joint inspections at 76 pharmaceutical companies, cancelled the licences of 18 of them for producing spurious and adulterated drugs. Back then, the inspections had been carried out across 20 states and Union Territories in an operation lasting 15 days. Sources had said that as part of the special drive, the regulators had identified 203 firms, majority of which were from Himachal Pradesh (70), followed by Uttarakhand (45) and Madhya Pradesh (23).