Indian regulator seeks to address the nation’s substandard drugs problem

In what is something of an indictment of India’s pharmaceutical industry, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has found that 2.3% of all the drugs tested by his organization were substandard. However, regulating the over 20,000 local drug companies remains a tall order, given the acute shortage of manpower to conduct inspections, reports The Pharma Letter's India correspondent.

Routine inspections carried out last year have revealed the substandard quality of certain drugs. The DCGI collected as many as 1,123 samples from retailers, government hospitals and wholesalers between April and December 2013, along with joint teams of staff of the central and state drug controller.

A higher concentration of substandard drugs was noted in Jammu and Kashmir in North India, while Himachal Pradesh, also in the North, emerged as the next worst performer with several of its drugs failing the quality test.