Only a fraction of Indian drugs is substandard

NEW DELHI: The scare over substandard drugs flooding the market is akin to making a mountain out of a molehill, says a nation-wide study funded by the World Health Organization.

Three organisations working on pharmaceuticals and pharmacy related issues studied more than 10,000 samples from across the country and came to the conclusion that only 0.3% of the samples were of questionable quality. They initially suspected 3.1% of the total samples –– representing Rs 1,000 crore in terms of business ––to be counterfeit suspects. Of this, the organisations tested about 23% and some arbitrarily selected non-suspects at labs accredited to the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration of Laborotories. The results showed that only 0.3% of the samples were substandard.

A large number of suspects were copycats exposing the practice of faking brands of rivals to make money, but quality standards were complied with. Laboratory tests cannot identify who is the maker of a drug; it can only tell if it contains what is claimed on the label.

Samples of the same brand collected from different outlets had differences in the label, calligraphy, printing of batch details, colour shades, coding and presence of holograms. The problem of counterfeiting hurts the profits of the brandname holder and not the patient.
The study was conducted by the SearPharm Forum, the Delhi Pharmaceuticals Trust and Apothecaries Foundation. The largest number of counterfeit suspects were noticed among anti-infective category.