India takes action on spurious and sub-standard drugs

An American pharmacist and an Indian pharmacologist charged with smuggling four million fake pharmaceuticals into the country earlier this month may have been the last straw for the Indian government battling counterfeit drugs.

Summons have been issued to carry out an all-India survey on the availability and the extent of spurious and sub-standard drugs in the country, while law enforcement agencies have been ordered to aggressively pursue counterfeiters and put them behind bars, reports The Pharma Letter’s India correspondent.

Fake drugs, that treat everything from cancer to erectile dysfunction, are a multibillion dollar industry. With many accusing fingers pointing to India, the country has decided to don battle gear against sub-standard pharmaceutical products.