The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has published three lists of products declared as Not of Standard Quality (NSQ) and Spurious for October 2024. All these three lists were published on November 29, 2024.
These lists are as follows:
- Dugs analyzed by CDSCO/ central laboratories,
- Drugs that have been analyzed by state laboratories, and
- Drugs, Medical Devices, Vaccine and Cosmetics declared as Spurious/Adulterated/Misbranded
Not of Standard Quality (NSQ) drugs refer to drugs that fail to meet quality standards or specifications. The term ‘standards of quality’ is defined in the Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940, to mean that the drug complies with the standards set out in the Second Schedule of the said Act.
Central Laboratories NSQ List of drugs/ products for October– 2024
The NSQ drug list for central CDSCO laboratories specifies a total of 56 drugs that were detected to be deficient.
Out of the 56 NSQ drugs from CDSCO/Central Laboratories, 24 were reported by Central Drug Laboratory (CDL), Kolkata; 9 were reported by Regional Drugs Testing Laboratory (RDTL), Chandigarh; 14 were reported by RDTL, Guwahati; 7 were reported by Central Drugs Testing Laboratory (CDTL), Mumbai, 1 each was reported by CDTL, Hyderabad and CDTL, Chennai.
State Laboratories NSQ List of drugs/ products for October – 2024
The NSQ drug list specifies a total of 34 drugs that were detected to be deficient by the state laboratories. Out of these 34 drugs, 6 were declared to be not of standard quality, 6 were misbranded and the remaining were found to not satisfy standards.
Out of these 34 drugs, 10 were reported by State Lab, Drugs Control Laboratory, Telangana; 2 by State lab (Puducherry); 5 by State Drugs Testing Laboratory, Agartala, Tripura; 1 by Drug Testing Laboratory Srinagar (J&K); 2 by RDTL Chandigarh and 14 were reported by Drugs Testing Laboratory Thiruvananthapuram.
It is pertinent to note that CDSCO did not receive NSQ data as per Format & in EXCEL SHEET from State Drugs Licensing Authorities of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu Kashmir, Puducherry, Telangana, Kerala, Tripura, Goa (PDF format Nil), Jharkhand (PDF Format), Karnataka (PDF Format), Ladakh (PDF format Nil), Maharashtra (PDF format), Rajasthan (PDF format), for the Month of October, 2024.
However, the State Drugs Licensing Authorities of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Andaman & Nicobar, Dadar and Nagar Haveli; Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep have not submitted any data in respect of the Not of Standard Quality (NSQ) Alert for the Month of October, 2024.
Drugs, Medical Devices, Vaccine and Cosmetics declared as Spurious/Adulterated/Misbranded for October – 2024
This list specifies a total of 3 drugs as follows:
- Gastro-resistant and Domeperiodone Prolong Released Capsules IP ( PAN-D),
- Cefixime Tablets IP (TAXIM-O 200) and
- Rosuvastatin Tablets IP (Rosuvas 10)
All 3 drugs were detected to be spurious by the actual manufacturers of the claimed drugs. The Drugs Inspector, Kolkata and Drugs Inspector, Bihar were responsible for drawing these drugs.
All of these drugs are subject to ongoing investigation.