Medicines manufactured even by pharma majors have adverse side-effects: Study

In a startling revelation, it has come to light that commonly used drugs such as Pantoprazole, Cip-zox, Combiflam, Ciprofloxacin, Norfloxacin, Amoxycillin tablets, Dexa injections, etc, manufactured by well-established pharmaceutical companies, including Cipla, Sanofi, Neuland and some public sector undertakings failed to pass quality tests.

After the release of drug alert report, Sanofi announced recalling some batches of Combiflam, while the response of other drug manufacturers on substandard drug is still awaited. According to the findings of CDSO, several life-saving drugs commonly used in the treatment of heartburn, cold, fever, flu, bacterial infections, joint pains, lower back pain, sprains or bone fractures, backache, etc have failed the quality test.

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

It’s not only that drugs made by private players were found substandard, but essential medicines manufactured by public sector undertaking drug making firms have also not made the cut. In the random test, it has been found that medicines made by Karnataka Antibiotics & Pharmaceutical Ltd, the winner of quality excellence trophy, and Indian Drugs & Pharmaceuticals Ltd (IDPL) are substandard.

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

According to the report, some of the drugs fail to dissolve, while in some others, there was no salt. Cip-zox – paracetamol tablets, which is manufactured by Cipla, is used to treat muscle spasm and the resulting pain or discomfort, while Combiflam, which is a product of Sanofi, is used in treating headache, migraine, neuralgia and fever. Cip-zox, Combiflam tablets failed to disintegrate, while Pantoprazole, Norfloxacin tablets failed to dissolve.

Norfloxacin tablets, which is manufactured by Bangalore-based Karnataka Antibiotics & Pharmaceutical, a public sector undertaking, is used to treat infections caused by certain types of bacteria. It is most commonly used to treat urinary tract (bladder) infections to cure gastric ulcer.

In the surprise investigation, several samples of Combiflam, the drug used in fever and pain relief, were tested and all of them failed to disintegrate. The samples were collected from Kolkata and were tested by CDSCO, Kolkata, while Dexa injections, which is used to in treatment of certain cancers, severe allergic reactions among others, were found misbranded.