CDSCO flags 151 drugs as ‘not of standard quality’, several batches traced to other states

Kolkata: The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has recently listed at least 151 drugs as not of standard quality (NSQ) in July. Many of these spurious drugs were found in Bengal, which were originally brought from other states. Several medicines which were tested in the Central Drug Control Laboratory in Kolkata were found to be not up to the mark. The drug control has published a list of suspicious medicines marked as NSQ. All the retailers and wholesale chemists and druggists shops were asked not to sell these medicines.

These medicines include antibiotic drugs, cancer drugs and medicines meant for urinary tract infection. A cancer drug, Heparin injection that came from Gujarat’s Vadodara, failed to clear a quality test in Kolkata. The azithromycin tablet that came from Himachal Pradesh failed to clear the quality test as well. The medicines which were given NSQ tag include sucralfate batch number RL241210 which has come from Uttarakhand. Antibiotic Amikacin Sulphate injection used for treating urinary tract infection also failed in the quality test. This drug came from Telangana. NSQ drugs are those that fail to meet the quality standards or specifications, including those pertaining to labelling, dissolution, weight uniformity, and sterility. The CDSCO released a statement in July, also giving a list of drugs that failed the quality test. Of this, around 97 were identified by various state drug testing laboratories. As per routine regulatory surveillance activity, the list of Not of Standard Quality (NSQ) and Spurious drugs are being displayed. Identification of drug samples as NSQ is done based on failure of the drug sample in one or the other specified quality parameters. The failure is specific to the drug products of the batch tested by the government laboratory and it does not warrant any concerns on the other drug products available in the market, CDSCO said in its statement.