BENGALURU: The State Drugs Control Department is testing 2,000 drugs as part of a countrywide survey of spurious and non-standard ones, according to State Drug Controller Raghuram Bhandari. The survey model is designed by the Indian Statistical Institute.
Speaking at a seminar on ‘Safe Medicine’ organised by the Christian Medical Association of India here on Monday, Bhandari said, “Close to 45,000 drug samples have been collected from 676 districts across the nation. And once the report is out, the percentage of non-standard drugs in the market can be easily known.”
Referring to the recent death of two children at a private hospital in Yelahanka which was reported to his department, he said people suspected that drugs were of poor quality. However, there was no evidence to prove that was the reason for the deaths, he added. “In fact, one of the vaccines used on the patients had been tested and was found to have met all standards. The lab report of the other drug is still awaited,” he said.
Dr V K Subburaj, secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals, GoI, said many times drugs are blamed while the cause of death could be a doctor’s and staffer’s negligence.
58 Prosecuted: In Karnataka, 58 manufacturers have been prosecuted so far for manufacturing spurious and low-quality drugs. Though there has been a buzz about spurious drugs flooding the market, there are no statistics to substantiate this, a drug official said.