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Drug majors fail quality test as life-saving meds fail to pass muster

In a startling revelation, it has come to notice that several life-saving drugs commonly used to cure asthma, cold, nausea, pneumonia, anaemia, etc have failed quality test.

The shocking revelations have been reported by the apex body in the monthly drug alert report released after a pan India drive conducted to examine drugs.

According to the report, the life-saving drugs that failed quality test include Salbutamol Sulphate tablets (Asthalin), Escitalopram Oxalate tablets, Omeprazole capsules, Pantest tablets, Paracetamol (syrup, tablet and injection), painkiller Ibuprofen-400, pneumonia-tonsil medicine anti-biotic, Amoxicillin, Ofloxacin medicines, etc.

All the medicines are generic drugs and some of them are manufactured by well-established pharmaceutical companies, including Cipla, Lupin and Ester formulations.

According to the report, some of the drugs fail to dissolve, while in some others, there was no salt. Salbutamol tablets, which is manufactured by Cipla, is used in the treatment of asthma patients to relieve the narrowing of the airways, chronic bronchitis and emphysema, while Escitalopram, which is a product of Lupin, is used for treating depression or generalised anxiety disorder. Pantest tablets, which is manufactured by Gujarat-based Ester formulations, is used to cure gastric ulcer.

In the surprise investigation, 16 samples of Paracetamol, the drug used in fever and pain relief, were tested. All of them failed in the quality test. The samples of Escitalopram were collected from Jammu.

The CDSO, Ghaziabad found that this drug is not getting dissolved, in a similar case, samples of Ibrifin-400, which is used as painkiller, were collected from Hyderabad and the Central Drug Laboratory Test (CDTL), Chennai found that this drug is not dissolving. The CDTL, Mumbai found that Azelex, a drug for piles, is bad in quality. According to report by CDSCO, Kolkata, the Pantest tablets, failed to dissolve.

The reports of CDTL, Kolkata has also pointed that antibiotic amoxicillin, which is effective in pneumonia and tonsil is not upto the mark and the drug failed to dissolve. The principal salt component Clonazepam was missing in the medicine. The salt of anti-bacterial drug Ciprofloxacin was also failed to dissolve. The investigating team of CDSO also found that some of basic components were missing in the anti-clotting injection Meparin-5.

The poor quality of drugs being openly sold in the market is the outcome of lapses of central government as there is no licence required for manufacturing generic drugs. It results into coming of small pharmaceutical companies in the manufacturing sector. These companies don’t have any facility to check the quality management. It has also come to notice that on the condition of getting huge orders, the big pharma companies involve small drug manufacturing firms to meet the target.
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