India To Conduct Nationwide Survey To Improve Drug Quality

Due to the recent increase in low quality and counterfeit drugs in India, the Indian government will be conducting what is being called “the largest nationwide survey ever conducted” to not only gage the extent of the problem, but to strategize measures to “plug the gaps” in drug quality, The Economic Times reports.

The Indian Statistical Institute and the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) will take the helm to sample over 40,000 drugs from 15 essential therapeutic drug categories, as noted in the National List of Essential Medicine. Part of the plan is to also target the lndian locations with the highest concentrations of spurious or sub-standard drugs, to see which areas require the help of an intensive action plan to track tainted drugs, according to The Economic Times.

"Drugs pass through the hands of various distributors, retailers and transporters before reaching the consumer,” a government official told the Economic Times. “So, it is necessary that prescribed storage conditions are known and followed through the channels so that it doesn't lose its efficacy."

India is the second largest supplier of both generic and over-the-counter drugs used in the United States. In the past year, the U.S. FDA has been setting its sights on improving quality control problems in India that have led to the banning of imported products from several large Indian pharma companies, Reuters reported. Bloomberg also reported last week that drugs from India containing lower amounts of their active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) were found in Africa, which has led to rumors that some drug makers could be sending low-quality drugs to poorer countries.

To combat poor drug quality, this new survey could mandate drug makers to notate prescribed storage conditions on drug labels, urge more efficient follow-ups on quality-related complaints from other countries, as well as implement a pilot bar-coding project.