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The number of states failing to submit the monthly data on Not of Standard Quality (NSQ) drugs has further gone up in March to 22 states and six Union Territories (UTs), according to the data from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).
The CDSCO, Central laboratories, state and UT drug regulators and state laboratories together have declared a total of 131 samples they tested during the month of March as NSQs, as compared to 103 NSQs declared in the month of February, 2025. The drugs that fail to meet the quality standards or specifications are known as NSQ drugs.
For the month of March, 2025, Central Drugs Laboratories have identified 70 drug samples to be NSQ and State Drugs Testing Laboratories have identified 61 drugs samples as NSQs.
During the month of February, 18 states and five Union Territories (UTs) failed to submit NSQ data, while in January, 17 states and three UTs did not submit the data. In December, 2024, a total of 13 states and four UTs did not submit the NSQ reports to the CDSCO.
According to the data released by the CDSCO for the month of March, 2025, the states of Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Manipur, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh have not submitted any data in respect of NSQs for publication as per the directions of the Central drug regulator.
Besides, the UTs of Chandigarh, Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadar and Nagar Haveli; Daman and Diu, Ladakh, and Lakshadweep also failed to submit the data with the CDSCO.
The Central drug regulator received data in excel sheet, which is as per the prescribed format, from f Kerala, West Bengal, Telangana Jammu & Kashmir, and Himachal Pradesh during the month. Puducherry, Assam, and Tripura submitted data in PDF format, as against the requirement of excel sheet.
The Drugs Controller General (India) [DCGI] had in February, 2024, issued a circular seeking the regional drug regulators to submit their data in specific format.
The number of NSQs reported from the states have seen a significant jump in the last couple of months, which has reached the highest in the month of January.
While the number of NSQs reported by the state laboratories in August, 2024 was a meagre 11, and 18 in September, it jumped to 34 in October, 70 in November, 84 in December, and 93 in January, shows the data. However, the reporting from state laboratories has been on a decline since then, with 56 samples in February and 61 in March.
Samples of formulations listed by the CDSCO and the Central Laboratories as NSQ during the month include eight drug samples from Gidsha Pharmaceuticals, Gujarat, four samples each from Affy Parenterals and Martin and Brown Bio-sciences, Himachal Pradesh, three samples from Zee Laboratories, Himachal Pradesh, and two samples from public sector undertaking Hindustan Antibiotics, among others.
While the drug regulator lists these drugs labelled as manufactured by these firms, there are also chances that they might be produced by some other players and the label has been used to mislead the regulators.
Similarly, the CDSCO has declared a sample of Telma 40 (telmisartan tablet IP 40 mg) tested in the month of March and Telma AM tested in the month of January, 2025, as spurious since the actual manufacturer as per label claim, has informed that the said batch of product has not been manufactured by them and that it is a spurious drug. Telma is a brand marketed by Glenmark Pharmaceuticals.
Similarly, a sample of Tofajak tablets (tofacitinib tablets 5 mg) - a brand owned by Cipla - under the drug alert for the month of November 2024 has also been declared as a spurious drug by the Central drug regulator.
"The product is purported to be spurious, however, the same is subject to the outcome of investigation," it added in all the three cases.
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