Substandard drugs on a decline amid crackdown

The first of a two-part series focuses on how quality audits and regulatory actions on pharma units nationwide are showing results

- SOHINI DAS

The percentage of non-standard quality (NSQ) drugs in tested samples has been steadily declining, pointing to improvements in quality assurance. Simultaneously, efforts to crack down on spurious medicines are intensifying, with a rise in raids on illicit drug manufacturing units, alongside arrests for the production, sale, or distribution of spurious or adulterated drugs.

Data reveals that the share of NSQ drugs in tested samples has nearly halved — dropping from around 5 per cent in 2014-15 to 2.8 per cent in 2021-22, according to an answer given in the Lok Sabha by Bharti Pravin Pawar, then minister of state for health and family welfare, in February last year.

Meanwhile, the number of spurious drugs flagged in random sample tests surged from 83 in 2014-15 to 379 in 2021-22. The overall number of samples tested also increased from 74,199 in 2014-15 to 88,844 in 2021-22. Alongside this, prosecutions and arrests have seen a sharp uptick, with cases of prosecution rising from 152 in 2014-15 to 592 in 2021-22, and arrests climbing from 85 to 450 during the same period, shows data in Lok Sabha answers.