The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (Maha FDA) has registered a significant drop in the number of sub-standard drug samples in the routine random inspections being carried out by the agency. The FDA has found only 16 not-of-standard drugs during the inspection conducted in the month of May compared to the month of April, when the FDA had found 20 not-of-standard-quality drugs.

Well-known drug manufacturers like S K Healthcare Formulations for Pantolet-D tablets, Magbro Healthcare for Spid tablets, Rahul Pharmaceuticals for Inzyme plus, Ajanta Pharma for Amday AT, MMC Healthcare for Hemocare syrup, D R John's Labs for Utizyme syrup and S G S Pharmaceuticals for SGS Ampiclox also figure in the list.

The highlights of Maha FDA's not-of-standard drugs sample less than the I P and permissible limits list includes: Ajanta Pharma (Amday AT), Bittu Pharmaceuticals (chiloramphenicol capsule), Prashi Pharma (loparmide(carton) loperamide hydrochloride tablets), T & T Pharma Care (BMD Plus), Vikas Pharmaceuticals Laboratories (Bisacodyl tablets) and S G S Pharmaceuticals (SGS Ampiclox).

According to the latest data released by the Maharashtra FDA, out of 16 such drug samples five each were from Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra, four from Uttaranchal and one each from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

During May the companies in the list include: S K Healthcare Formulations from Andhra Pradesh, Beta Drugs, Magbro Healthcare, Rahul Pharmaceuticals, Saibliss Drugs & Pharmaceuticals and Spanker Biotech from Himachal Pradesh, Ajanta Pharma, Bittu Pharmaceuticals, Prashi Pharma, T & T Pharma Care, Vikas Pharmaceuticals Laboratories from Maharashtra, MMC Healthcare from Tamil Nadu and D R John's Labs, Elder Pharmaceuticals, Platinum Pharmaceuticals and S G S Pharmaceuticals from Uttaranchal.

The state FDA routinely picks up random samples of drugs from chemists and druggists and send them for testing. The department will soon issue show cause notices to these companies.