Drug Alert in Himachal: Heart, Blood Sugar, and Cancer Medicines Fail Quality Tests – Are You in Danger?
Shimla, India- As alarming, 23 drug samples from certain pharmaceutical houses of Himachal Pradesh failed the quality test. These drugs include heart attack medicines, blood sugar level control medicines, and cancer treatments besides antibiotics used in critical medical treatment which have raised some public health concern.
Several of the low-quality drugs were reportedly manufactured by some well-known pharmaceutical firms operating in Himachal's industrial states of Baddi, Sirmaur, and Paonta Sahib. The office of State Drug Controller asserted these drugs had been tested and did not measure up to approved standards.
Companies and Drugs Which Failed Quality Tests
Among the drugs listed as not measuring up to standards are:
Pushkar Pharma in Sirmaur, whose Oxytocin, a drug used in childbirth, was raised as an issue.
Martin & Brown, Baddi did not accept samples of Calcium Gluconate. It is an anticoagulant given to heart attack patients.G Laboratories, Paonta Sahib refused to accept Ceftriaxone, infection drug, Gentamicin drug for infections and Genericart, drug used to control blood sugar levels. All the samples had failed prescriptions.
Innovo Capetep, Jharmajri, has reportedly rejected samples of Nimesulide. The drug can be useful for all those in constant pain as most medicines used as pain relievers.
Celebrity Biotech's Ciprowin and Ariso Pharmaceuticals in Makhoon Majra, two samples of Motosep were also found to be substandard.
Among these other notable flops, there are Promethazine from Nitin Life Sciences in Kala Amb, Ifosfamide - a cancer drug by Quality Pharmaceuticals and Bupron SR by Digital Vision in Kala Amb.
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There are failed drugs other than treatments of heart attack and cancer. Some samples of Vitamin B (Neuropine) by Syserose Remedies, Torsemide, blood pressure drugs manufactured by JM Labs in Solan, have not met the stipulated standards. Other drugs on the failure list include Neurochem, a drug for diabetes by Klusta Pharmaceuticals, Baddi, and Stay Happy Trypsin, a painkiller by Tri Vision Healthcare.
Public Health Concerns
Such quality control failures come with tremendous implications since most of them are prescription drugs administered to vulnerable patients with chronic, some fatal diseases.
The health department of Himachal Pradesh has sensitized the consumer to be careful and to seek advice from the healthcare providers while administering such prescription drugs.
Health authorities have also asked pharmaceutical companies to sanitize their manufacturing processes in compliance with regulatory standards so as to ensure patient safety.
