Crackdown on pharma companies: Licences of 18 pharmaceutical firms cancelled for manufacturing spurious drugs

In a stern action against the manufactures of substandard drugs, central and state regulators have came down heavily conducting joint inspections at 76 pharmaceutical companies, and on Tuesday, cancelled the licences of 18 of them for producing spurious and adulterated drugs.

Official sources confirmed that the inspections were carried out across 20 states and Union Territories in the past 15 days.

A source said that the regulators have taken action against 76 companies in phase one of a special drive against the manufacture of substandard drugs.

"Licences of 18 pharma companies have been cancelled for manufacturing spurious and adulterated drugs and for violating GMP (good manufacturing practice).... Besides, 26 firms have been given show-cause notices," an official source said.

The sources said that as part of the special drive, the regulators have identified 203 firms, majority of which are from Himachal Pradesh (70), followed by Uttarakhand (45) and Madhya Pradesh (23).

Recently, questions have been raised over the quality of drugs manufactured by India-based companies and many of them have come under the scanner in foreign countries.

In February, the Tamil Nadu-based Global Pharma Healthcare recalled its entire lot of eyedrops allegedly linked to vision loss in the US.

Before that, India-made cough syrups were allegedly linked to children deaths in the Gambia and Uzbekistan last year.

(With inputs from PTI)