Parliamentary Concerns on Drug Quality and Conviction Rates

The parliamentary standing committee on chemicals and fertilizers has raised alarms over the low conviction rates related to the manufacture, sale, and distribution of spurious or adulterated drugs in India.

Key Findings and Statistics

• Between 2015-16 and 2018-19, out of 230,000 drug samples examined: 
  • 593 were declared spurious.
  • 9,266 were found to be of substandard quality.
• Conviction Rate: 
  • Only 35 convictions were made, amounting to a 5.9% conviction rate.
  • The remaining cases are still in various judicial stages.
• The conviction data for spurious drugs is not centrally maintained, posing challenges for penal action.

Recommendations by the Committee

The committee emphasized the need for stringent actions and exemplary punishments for those involved in drug adulteration.

National Survey of Drugs (2014-16) Findings

• 10% of samples from government sources were substandard compared to 3% from private sources.
• This indicates a 3.17 times higher prevalence of substandard drugs in government channels.

Concerns on Government Drug Sources

• The committee criticized the department's failure to address the core reasons for higher NSQ drug prevalence from government sources.
• Issues related to procurement processes were highlighted as potential loopholes.

Health Ministry's Recent Update

• In November, central drugs laboratories identified 41 samples as NSQ.
• State drug testing laboratories found 70 samples not meeting quality standards.