9,092 drug samples found to be substandard in last three years: J P Nadda, Health minister

NEW DELHI: The Centre today said that out of the 2,05,448 drug samples tested from 36 states and union territories in the last three years, 9,092 samples were declared 'not of standard quality' while 271 were found to be spurious or adulterated.

In a written reply to Lok Sabha, Health and Family Welfare Minister J P Nadda said that 2,362 drug samples out of 58,537, 3,028 of 72,712 and 3,702 of 74,199 were found to be of substandard quality in 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively.

Nadda said that measures have been initiated, in order to strengthen the Central and state level drug regulatory infrastructure.

Measures like increase in the number of sanctioned posts in Central Drug Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), development of IT enabled system for online submission of clinical trial application, development of e-governance module for CDSCO and re-equipping the drug testing laboratories with state-of-art equipment, have been initiated, he added.