In a wake up call about the safety and concern, the Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO) come up with the declaration that more than 50 drugs, including paracetamol, Pan D, and calcium supplements, are ‘not of standard quality’ in its recent monthly report.
In the August 2024 report, the central drug regulator discovered paracetamol, vitamin D and calcium supplements, high blood pressure medications, and anti-diabetes pills under the ‘Not of Standard Quality (NSQ Alert)’ category. NSQ alerts come from the random monthly sampling conducted by state drug officers.
Medicines which failed the quality check include vitamin C and D3 tablets, Shelcal, vitamin B complex, vitamin C softgels, anti-acid Pan-D, paracetamol tablets (IP 500 mg), the anti-diabetic drug Glimepiride, and the high blood pressure medication Telmisartan.
Several companies manufactured these products including Hetero Drugs, Alkem Laboratories, Hindustan Antibiotics Limited (HAL), Karnataka Antibiotics & Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Pure & Cure Healthcare, and Meg Lifesciences, among others.
Notably, Metronidazole which is generally used for the treatment of stomach infections produced by HAL, also failed quality testing. Shelcal, a popular calcium and vitamin D3 supplement, has been termed in the NSQ Alert category. A Kolkata drug-testing lab deemed antibiotics like Clavam 625 and Pan D as false. Cepodem XP 50 Dry Suspension, a very common infection medication used for children, was also tested in the same lab and termed by CDSCO for failing the quality test.
The central drug regulator specifically issued two lists one with 48 drugs which failed the quality tests and another with 5 drugs in the NSG Alert category, along with the response from their manufacturers. The response from Pulmosil’s drug-make reads, ‘The actual manufacturer (as per label claim) has informed that the impugned batch of the product has not been manufacturer by them and that it is a spurious drug. The product is purported to be spurious, however, the same is subjected to outcome of investigation’.
In August 2024, the CDSCO banned atleast 156 fixed-dose drug combinations across the country for likely risk to humans.
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