Karnataka drugs control department has swooped down to seize 10 not-of-standard quality drugs during an inspection drive undertaken between April 1-30, 2013.

The drugs are Aziras or Rabeprazole manufactured Moses Pharmaceuticals in Himachal Pradesh. Baralgin tablet  manufactured by Gopish Pharmaceuticals Limited at Nalagarh district in Solan, Himachal Pradesh.  

Krepanip or Pantoprazole manufactured by Aryan Healthcare in Baddi district, Solan in Himachal Pradesh.  Naplodole or Diclofenac which is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug manufactured  by SVP Life Sciences in Dehradun, Uttaranchal.  Ranitidine injection manufactured by SK Parenterals at  Tetali, Tanuku in Andhra Pradesh.  

Omeprazole capsules manufactured by Karnataka Antibiotics & Pharmaceuticals Limited (KAPL) Bengaluru, Levoz 650 manufactured by  SL Pharmaceuticals  in Solan, Doxycycline manufactured by Jackson Laboratories in Punjab, Cephoticyline Sodium manufactured  by the  Karnataka Antibiotics & Pharmaceuticals Limited, Bengaluru  and Metformin 350 manufactured by Pulse Pharma in Uttarkhand.

“This is part of the regular inspections where our enforcement teams make surprise checks and pick up samples at random from pharmacy outlets across the state.  Since we carry out these inspections on top priority, we are making the best efforts to ensure that patients get the right quality drugs, said Dr. BR Jagashetty, Karnataka drugs controller.

There is need to ensure that chemists and hospital outlets have the good quality drugs and such inspections will give company the responsibility to manufacture quality medicines. The chemists are also bound to ensure that  there is no sale of spurious or not  of quality standard drug, he added.

The state drugs control department’s is now on working to augment drug testing capability to around 12,000 samples from the current 3,000 samples annually.

 The lab infrastructure at for drug testing at Bengaluru, Hubli and Bellary, would enable us to  achieve the target of 12,000 drug samples, said  Dr. Jagashetty.

The department has also received its 42 High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) equipment under a World Bank funded Karnataka Health System Development and Reform Project (KHSD&RP) assistance supplied by the global medical device major Shimadzu Corporation. The equipment have been installed at the three drug test labs located at Bengaluru, Hubli and Bellary.

In addition to the HPLC, the drugs control department has also received equipments covering UV Spectrometry, water purifier and dissolution test apparatus for the fourth lab.

“As part of the test equipment installation process, Shimadzu Corporation has trained the team of 42 senior and junior scientific officers at Singapore. The initiative would accelerate the speed of drug analysis in a systematic manner. Therefore, the new infrastructure and equipment would help us to strengthen our testing capability. We will be able to analyse more number of samples and revert with the final reports in a time-bound manner,” said Dr Jagashetty.

Meanwhile, the state drugs control department is also awaiting the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) certification for its lab in Bengaluru as the audit is complete.