The number of spurious and adulterated drugs went up during the last fiscal year compared to the previous year even as the authorities put in place 'sterner' mechanisms to check the spurt in fake drugs, according to the random check and tests done by the regulatory authorities.
The officers under the CDSCO took a total of 48082 samples from the markets during 2011-12 and out of them, 133 were tested spurious or adulterated against 95 found to be spurious during 2010-11, according to the statistics collected by the Health Ministry.
As many as 2186 samples were found to be of not-standard quality and legal action was initiated against 211. As the monitoring and vigil was stepped up, 141 persons were arrested against 72 during the previous year.
According to the statistics, during 2010-11, a total of 49682 samples were collected and 2372 packs were found to be of not-standard quality. Prosecution was initiated against 167 persons. The officials conducted 1295 raids throughout the country.
The data showed that Maharashtra reported highest number of spurious drugs cases at 31, out the total 6494 samples collected while the total number of substandard samples was 449. Uttar Pradesh followed with 30 spurious drugs, out of the total 1247 samples collected. Other States that reported spurious drugs were Bihar (8), Gujarat (6), Jammu and Kashmir (4), Karnataka (5), Rajasthan (4), Tamil Nadu (3) and Assam (1).
In Andhra Pradesh from where 4052 samples were collected for tests, only one drug was found to be spurious. States like Delhi, Goa, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, and Chhattisgarh had no cases of spurious drugs.
During 2009-10, the total number of drugs of substandard quality was 1942 and the total number of spurious or adulterated drugs was 117, out the total 39248 samples collected. As many as 147 persons were arrested and a total of 2513 raids were mounted on the medical shops.