KATHMANDU, Sept 4 - Almost five percent of different brands of drugs, which the government inspected in 2005/06, were found to be substandard, according to a government report.
The Department of Drugs Administration (DDA) report says, of the 265 suspected samples it investigated, 14 medicines manufactured by three domestic and 11 Indian companies were of inferior quality.
"Amgil-400, Cotrimoxazole tablets, Flamcid, Curezole Larprim, Synomol, Conmox, Larprim drops, Rogyl-400, Vega tablets, Wypol-DS tablets, P-mox, Cipid and P-clox failed to meet government standards," a source told the Post. He, however, did not disclose the names of the manufacturers.
The department had collected 180 samples of different brands of tablets, 63 samples of capsules and 22 liquid drugs from the market for investigation in 2005/06. Those were tested at drugs quality monitoring laboratories, including Zest Laboratory, Multi Laboratory, FDC Laboratory and the government owned lab.
The report mentions that the medicines failed to meet the standard on 'dissolution rate' and lacked uniformity in combination of active ingredients. "While some medicines weighed lower than the specified weight, others did not meet the pH standard," said the source. The source said that DDA has already warned the respective companies to correct their mistakes. "We have also issued written orders asking them to examine the quality of drugs before dispatching them to the market," he said.
The DDA has also warned of blacklisting and even scrapping their operating licenses if found guilty again.
During the inspection, the government had also found 119 different brands of medicines widely in circulation without being registered with the government.
As per government regulations, medicines must be registered at the DDA before introduction in the market. DDA said that the government till date has given permission to around 40 Nepali companies and 200 foreign companies to sell around 7,000 different brands of medicine in the country.
The government had inspected 642 different retail medical outlets operating in 22 districts of the country in the last fiscal year. As per the statistics, around 2,231 wholesalers and 13,575 retail medical outlets have registered their business with the government, of which 747 wholesalers and 1,924 retailers are in Kathmandu.
Source:
The Kathmandu Post
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