The Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) has finally completed collection of samples in 15 categories of drugs including antibiotics as part of a survey on spurious and not-of-standard (NoS) drugs being conducted in collaboration with Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) and National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO). Testing of the samples have been started, an official informed.

It is a pan-India project in which drug samples were drawn from healthcare institutions and retail pharmacies across the country to assess the quality of drugs available to the common man. This will be followed by testing and analysis of the samples and drafting of the final report.

An official associated with the development explained that around 1000 drug inspectors from across the country were trained for the pan-India initiative.

Earlier, a survey to assess the extent of spurious drugs in the country was conducted in the year 2009 by the ministry of health, which revealed that the extent of drugs found spurious was 0.046 per cent only. Dr Surinder Singh, director, National Institute of Biologicals (NIB), Noida, is the chairman of the committee conducting the survey. This broad-based survey would help in identifying the geographical areas where spurious drugs are available so that a focused monitoring is done by the concerned authorities in these areas for eliminating the menace of spurious drugs.

The NSSO had asked the state governments to provide information to arrive at a statistical design for the survey like information such as the number of retail outlets (district-wise); information regarding the maximum prescription of drugs under each of the 15 category including their trade name district wise; number of civil hospital stores (district-wise); number of central medical store (state-wise); and number of Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) dispensaries throughout the country.

Based on the survey of 2009 and data provided by ISI, Hyderabad, 24,136 samples of 62 brands of drugs belonging to 9 therapeutic categories were collected. The survey covered around 30 manufacturers from over 100 different pharmacy outlets in different regions of the country located in metros, big cities, district, towns and villages.

The CDSCO formulated the survey plan in consultation with NIB for conducting a scientific study on the extent of problems of spurious drugs and drugs not of standard quality (NSQ). Through this initiative between the state and the centre, India will now be able to project a clear statistics on spurious drugs, thus clarifying India’s stand on the same with scientific evidence.