CDSCO under fire from industry over substandard drug alert

The Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) – which represents medicine manufacturers – has stressed the importance of distinguishing between substandard and falsified products in response to an alert from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) highlighting products that were "not of standard quality" (NSQ).

The list (PDF) of nearly 50 NSQ medicines for the month of August has led major Indian pharma groups including Sun Pharma and Glenmark to respond with claims that their products are not substandard, and those on the list should be reported as counterfeit, according to a devdiscourse.com report. A separate list of spurious/adulterated/misbranded medicines, published on the same day, includes just five entries.

The article cites IPA Secretary General Sudarshan Jain, noting he urged for "a clear differentiation" between NSQ and spurious drugs, as failing to do so could undermine the pharma industry's international reputation.

India is the world's largest provider of generic drugs, and in the 2023/24 financial year, the country exported pharmaceuticals worth about $27.9bn, according to commerce ministry data.