The Centre is aiming to bring down the quantum of sub-standard drugs in the country to the maximum possible level through different measures possible, senior officials disclosed.

Currently the percentage may be around four to five per cent of the total volume and the target is to bring it down to one to two per cent in the next three years and then to the zero level gradually, Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) Dr G N Singh informed.

The Government is going for a major capacity building process for the central drug testing labs during the current five year plan. “Our target is to ensure that all drugs in the market are going to be of good quality. At least, we want to make sure that each drug is looked after system, by the next two-three years time,” he disclosed while addressing a consultation on safe medicines here other day.

Union Health Secretary Keshav Desiraju said there was a campaign going on that all generic drugs were of substandard quality and the move should be resisted by the stakeholders together to achieve the target of safe medicines for all.

“Making counterfeit drugs is a criminal activity and it needs to be checked. But, we need to have introspection into how the drugs are becoming sub-standard. Why should we produce drugs that are substandard by our own standards,” he asked the stakeholders.

He also said the Government wanted to ensure better clinical practice at the primary levels across the country and was planning to implement the treatment protocols strictly for ensuring safe medication.

Despite several measures, the menace of substandard drugs continued to fox the authorities, thought there was decrease in the number of spurious drugs in the recent years. According to official statistics, the CDSCO has tested about 1.37 lakh drug samples in the last three years. Of these, 6,500 samples were declared of sub-standard quality other than 345 cases of fake drugs.

During 2009-10, a total of 39,248 drug samples were tested and 1,942 were found to be of inferior quality. In 2010-11, about 49,682 drugs samples were tested and 2,372 of them were found to be of sub-standard quality. A total of 48,082 drugs samples were tested in 2011-12, in which 2,186 were found to be below the standard, as per the statistics.