Last Updated on January 6, 2024 by The Health Master
In a year when the country has seen challenges on various levels due to the C-19 pandemic and its impact on various walks of life, various drug control authorities in the country have seen a slight increase in spurious and adulterated drugs in the sample tests across the country in 2020-21, according to data.
Out of the total number of drug samples tested by the regulators, almost 0.31 per cent were declared as spurious or adulterated in the year, as compared to 0.24 per cent in the previous year. It may be noted that the number of drug samples tested also saw an increase during 2020-21.
The number of samples tested by various state and union territory drug controllers has seen a 4.4 per cent increase in the years 2020-21, to 84,874 as against the 81,329 samples tested in the years 2019-20. In 2020-21, during the tests, 263 drug samples (0.31% of the total drug samples tested) were declared as spurious or adulterated, as against 199 (0.24) in the previous year.
A total of 236 prosecutions were initiated during the year, and 164 people were arrested, as against 421 prosecutions and 220 arrests in the year 2019-20.
Around 2,652 samples, which account to around 3.12 per cent of the total samples tested in the year 2020-21 were declared as not of standard. The number of not of standard quality drugs identified through tests during the previous year was 2,497 (3.07%).
A total of 79,604 samples were tested during the year 2018-19, out of which 205 (0.27%) were declared as spurious or adulterated.
A total of 484 prosecutions were initiated and 153 persons were arrested. During the year, 2,549 samples (3.35%) were declared as not of standard quality.
The 2020-21 data comes at a time when the country has been seeing increased demand for certain medicines owing to the C-19 pandemic and efforts by the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries to treat patients infected with both C-19 and non-C-19 diseases.
During the period of the C-19 pandemic, cases of black-marketing, hoarding, overpricing, and spurious manufacturing of drugs were reported as under:
- Uttar Pradesh (68),
- Maharashtra (50),
- Andhra Pradesh (31),
- Haryana (24),
- Delhi (15),
- Gujarat (14)
- Rajasthan (14),
- Karnataka (12),
- Madhya Pradesh (10),
- Chhattisgarh (8),
- Uttarakhand (5),
- Punjab (4),
- West Bengal (2),
- Chandigarh (1),
- Jharkhand (1),
- Tamil Nadu (1),
- Telangana (1).
As per information available from various state licensing authorities, in the case of black-marketing/hoarding/ overcharging of C-19 management drugs, various enforcement actions like drug seizure, arrests of accused persons/ registration of FIR etc. have been carried out by the state licensing authorities, said Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar, minister of state in the ministry of health and family welfare recently in the Lok Sabha.
The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has been monitoring production and supplies of the C-19 drugs in respect of the concerned manufacturers on a regular basis, said the minister.
“As regards black-marketing issues, CDSCO has requested all States/UTs Licensing Authorities through several advisories to instruct their enforcement staff to keep strict vigil especially at sensitive places and to take stringent action against the offenders by conducting special drives of monitoring and investigation,” said Pawar.
According to data from the CDSCO, a little over two percent of the drug samples it has tested during the month of January 22, through various Central Drugs Laboratories in the country were declared as not of standard quality, while there were no spurious or misbranded drugs among the samples tested.
The central drug regulator tested a total of 1,227 drug samples during the month, of which 27 were declared as not of standard quality. The rest of the 1,200 samples were of standard quality, it said.
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