THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Vigilance and Anti-corruption Bureau(VACB) on Friday conducted statewide raids on drug testing labs as well as the offices of the Drugs Controller and the drug inspectors and found serious lapses on the part of officials in taking stringent action against the pharmaceutical companies, which supply sub-standard medicines to the state.
The raids were carried out after Vigilance officials came to know that certain pharmaceutical companies were influencing the officials concerned to sell their substandard products through the medical shops.
The sleuths found that 447 medicine samples did not meet the quality standards during tests conducted at the drug testing labs in Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur and Ernakulam. These samples belonged to 2017 and onwards. Under the rules, the drug inspectors and assistant drug inspectors should conduct checks on suspicious medical shops and collect the samples of medicines to be tested at the drug testing labs.