Controller takes action against spurious drugs

NEW DELHI: In the year 2015-16, of the 102 legal samples collected by the Delhi drug department, five samples were found to be spurious – not containing the active ingredient — and 10 to be sub-standard, as per a reply to a question in the Delhi Assembly.

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Prosecution has been launched against three of the four drug samples that were found to be spurious and investigation is underway for the other two.

“A medicine is considered to be spurious if it does not contain any active ingredient or not the same active ingredient that has been mentioned on the pack. Strict action can be taken, including life imprisonment, against manufacturers of such drugs,” said Delhi’s drug controller Dr Mrinalini Darswal.

A drug can also fail the test, like the 10 drugs that failed the test in the same period, if the active ingredient is present in less quantity than what is mentioned on the pack.

However, before picking up legal samples, which are acceptable in the court of law, the department also picks up smaller quantities of samples to do preliminary testing. “Collection of legal sample is time consuming, proper panchnama has to be prepared in presence of the witnesses. So, we can pick up the specimen or survey samples and do preliminary testing,” said Darswal.