The government has reiterated that there was no sharp increase in the number of spurious and adulterated drugs in the recent past, as claimed by certain sections especially the organizations and media abroad.
However, going by the number of substandard and adulterated drugs found during the random checks by the officers of the CDSCO, Gujarat is becoming a leading haven for fake drugs in the recent times, belying the earlier assumptions that the North Indian states were more notorious for spreading spurious drugs.
According to the figures collected by the Health Ministry, 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. Out of 2874 samples taken for tests from Gujarat, 186 were declared substandard and 64 were found to be spurious or adulterated, giving a dubious first to the State which was usually ranked very low in the past years.
Maharashtra reported 19 cases of spurious/adulterated drugs and 521 cases of drugs of not standard, when the officials took 6928 samples. Interestingly, during 2010-11, Maharashtra led the tally with 31 cases of spurious drugs while Gujarat reported merely six cases. Uttar Pradesh with 11 cases and Delhi with nine cases were the other leading places for spurious drugs last year.
On the overall, the number of spurious drugs went up from 95 during 2010-11 to 133 in the past financial year, registering still an increase despite the claims by the authorities that fake drugs were not flooding the markets as reported by some foreign agencies.
An official in the ministry, while admitting that there was 'slight' increase in the number of spurious drugs, claimed that it was not of grave 'concern' as painted by some quarters. He termed it as 'bit baffling' when it was pointed out that Gujarat had the largest number of spurious drug cases last year.
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.
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.