Khammam: A mail was sent from the medicine wing of Telangana State Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation (TSMSIDC) to the pharmacy wings in district headquarters instructing them to send back the stock of the Albendazole tablets as the analysis report of the medicine stated Not of Standard Quality (NSQ).
The substandard medicines were being sold and distributed to patients, both adults and children, in government hospitals.
Albendazole tablets 400 mg (chewable) were sent to Khammam, Karimnagar and other districts as part of National Deworming Day to administer to students in various government schools. The drug control lab, DCA, Hyderabad, tested the tablets after it was dispatched to the districts. It was found that the tablets were substandard and could not be administered to the students.
The mandal education officers and the headmasters were also asked to send back the medicines if they had received it.
Albendazole tablets bearing batch numbers 9658 and 9659 were supplied to erstwhile Khammam and Nizamabad districts. The in-charge of Central Medical Store pharmacist of Mahbubanagar district informed the TSMSIDC that batch number 9665 was sent for analysis and they were asked to hold the stock until the report was received.
Armenza or Albendazole is an orally administered antelmintic drug and chemically it is methyl 5- (propylthio)-2 –benzimidazolecarbamate. Its molecular weight is 265.34.
Albendazole is used to treat neurocysticercosis, an infection of the nervous system caused by pork tapeworms. This medicine is also used to treat cystic hydatid disease of the liver, lung, and peritoneum, an infection caused by dog tapeworms
The erratic work of the pharmacy wing to send the tablets without conducting NSQ and SQ tests was exposed along with the low standard of the medicines being bought from different pharmaceutical companies by the government and the Corporation. The employees of the pharmacy wing shocked with the mail from the Corporation on sending NSQ medicines back. Meanwhile complaints were registered from patients from various primary health centres.
