Kerala tops spurious drugs list, says minister

Drugs worth Rs 17.1 crore have been seized in raids between 2007 and 2009 by state licencing authorities.

Drugs worth Rs 17.1 crore have been seized in raids between 2007 and 2009 by state licencing authorities.

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Most of the cases of spurious and sub-standard drugs were detected in Kerala in 2008-09, and in Maharashtra 2007-08, minister of state for health Dinesh Trivedi told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

Overall, between 0.3 per cent and 0.4 per cent drugs in India are spurious and between 5.7 per cent and 6.2 per cent sub-standard.

Since the numbers are based on testing around 42,000 samples picked up in raids or inspections by state licensing authorities, the real number of spurious drugs across the country is likely to be lower.

“A recent survey carried out by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation on the basis of statistical principles provided by the Indian Statistical Institute, Hyderabad, to assess more accurate extent of spurious drugs in the country has revealed that the extent of spurious drugs is further much below this level, about 0.045 per cent,” said Trivedi.

State licencing authorities track drug quality across the country.