Gastro-resistant tablets of this company among 5% of drugs found substandard by CDSCO

Around 5 percent of the samples picked by India's drug regulator CDSCO for testing in January were found to be substandard. This comes at a time when some Indian pharma companies are under the WHO scanner - writes ETV Bharat's Gautam Debroy.

New Delhi: At a time when some Indian pharma companies are under WHO scanner after their drugs were linked to deaths in some countries, India's drug regulator, Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has detected around five percent substandard drugs from a total of 1,348 samples tested in January.

As many as 67 samples were found to be sub-standard in January after CDSCO tested a total of 1,348 samples collected from different drug manufacturers across the country. At least 1,282 samples have been declared of standard quality. Some of the drugs which were found to be of substandard quality included Rabeprazole Gastro Resistant tablets IP 20 mg of Andhra Pradesh-based M/s Revat Laboratories Pvt. Ltd., Levipro-500 manufactured by Himachal Pradesh-based M/s LV Life Science, Zinc Sulphate Oral Solutions I.P 100 ml of M/s Ornate Labs Pvt.Ltd. of Bihar and M/s Apple Formulations Pvt. Ltd. of Uttarakhand.

Government data in possession of ETV Bharat reveals that in the month of October, November, and December 2022, CDSCO had detected 50, 83, and 70 substandard drugs respectively during their checks. Cough syrups manufactured by Delhi-based Maidan pharmaceuticals and Noida-based Marion Biotech came under the scanner of the World Health Organization following the reports of deaths of people after allegedly consuming them.

The deaths of 18 children in Uzbekistan were linked to Marion Biotech manufactured syrup and the drugs of Maidan pharmaceuticals were linked to the death of 65 children in Gambia. The CDSCO conducts testing of drugs manufactured by Indian pharmaceuticals on regular basis.