The Karnataka drugs control department has seized 20 not-of-standards quality drugs during its surprise inspection drive in August. The drugs were picked up at random by the department’s enforcement teams and tested at its drugs test labs.

The drugs were mostly Pantoprazole 40 mg, Omeprazole, Orcipan, Opet, Panpil, Pantin, Zovanta, Peaid and Petalife which are pantoprazole formulations to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease.

Lopramed is a medication used to decrease the frequency of diarrhoea. Mecoblend which contains alpha Lipoic acid, methylcobalamin vitamins and minerals, Parafit which is a paracetamol, DRMET Forte G1 which contains active ingredients like Glimepride and Metformin a sustained release table.

Another set of drugs seized were Calbox V tablets containing calcium citrate, vitamin D3, magnesium and zinc, Speclon which is an antiseptic soap, Festive 200 which contains ofloxacin tablets, Rabiplus which contains raberprazole sodium EC capsules and Thioguanine tablets which were also analysed to be not of standard quality.

These drugs are found to be manufactured in the industrial areas like Depalpur in Madhya Pradesh, Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, Solan Himachal Pradesh, Una in Himachal Pradesh, Thriuvandarkoil in Puducherry, Uttarkhand, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh, Solan in Himachal Pradesh, Garget in Himachal Pradesh, Roorkee in Haridwar district, Uttarkhand, Solan in Himachal Pradesh, Paonta Sahib in Himachal Pradesh, Kalyanpur village in Himachal Pradesh, Kashipur in Uttarkhand, MIDC in Thane, Maharashtra, Sirmour in Himachal Pradesh and Mettupalam Industrial
Estate in Puducherry.

The locations in Himachal Pradesh were earlier part of the excise free zones of the Union government. Now with the tax levies implemented by the government, the companies have been finding it difficult to maintain the required quality standards. More over these companies are small and tiny segment.

The need of the hour is to ensure our teams carry out inspections regularly. This exercise enables to ensure that good quality drugs are made available at the pharmacy outlets for chemists which can be accessed, said Karnataka drugs controller BT Khanapure.

The department has also intimated to all chemist outlets in the state and the hospital pharmacies to refrain from stocking these drugs. Also physicians are informed not to prescribe these drug brands. The public has been warned not to purchase these drugs from pharmacy outlets over the counter.