Medicines to undergo exhaustive laboratory test to ascertain their quality
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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Drug samples from over 5,000 drug institutions including pharma companies, retail stores, wholesale dealers and government pharmacies in the state are being subjected to exhaustive laboratory testing process to ascertain their quality.
The exercise is being conducted as part of the nationwide survey of Central Drug Standards Control Organisations (CDSCO) to build scientific evidence regarding the quality of medicines. Nearly 45,000 samples of drugs are being tested across the country.
The survey is significant from the state’s point of view since the annual consumption of medicines in Kerala is a whopping Rs 2500 crore. Moreover the state which accounts for 3 per cent of country’s total population, consumes more than 10 per cent of drugs sold.
Taking this into account the authorities here have lifted the samples of a wide range of medicines including anti-infectives, steroids, cardiovascular, anti-diabetics, anti-malarial, multivitamin preparations, renal and psychiatric drugs for subjecting them thorough tests.
The agencies have also picked samples of combination drugs for the first time which is seen as a noteworthy step. Besides ensuring quality drugs within the country and checking the supply of spurious drugs, the survey which is one of the largest in the pharma sector, is intended to counter the propaganda about drugs exported from India being of low quality.
CDSCO is being assisted by National Institute of Biologicals Noida which has one of the finest designated laboratories to carry out various biological and chemical tests. The last national drug survey was carried out six years ago during which nearly 25,000 samples were tested. The outcome of the current survey would be known by July end.
( Source : dc )
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