Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Maharashtra Cancels 215 Pharmacy Licences After Tests Expose Widespread Substandard Drugs

The FDA told the Assembly that 34 of 36 samples failed quality checks, prompting inspector recruitment and laboratory upgrades.

Overview

  • Licences of 176 retailers and 39 wholesalers were revoked over the past year as part of a targeted enforcement campaign.
  • Testing at 10 locations across Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Aurangabad and Nagpur found 34 substandard samples out of 36 examined.
  • Six samples of a paediatric cough-syrup brand failed quality checks, and clinicians and pharmacists were directed to halt prescribing or selling propranolol-containing medicines.
  • Officials reported alleged supply of fake and substandard drugs to government hospitals by unauthorised firms and cited instances of altered or recombined components sold under new names such as "Pankreatine/Pancreatin."
  • With 176 drug-inspector posts vacant, the government plans to fill 109 positions via the MPSC and is upgrading testing capacity, including work on labs in Nashik and Pune.