Drug licences of 18 pharma firms cancelled for manufacturing poor quality meds

Centre on Monday cancelled licenses of 18 pharma companies for manufacturing spurious medicines. The decision came after inspections by Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on 76 companies across 20 States.

Official sources said, a huge crackdown is underway on pharma companies across the country related to the manufacturing of spurious medicine.

As per the official, action were taken against 70 companies in Himachal Pradesh and 45 in Uttarakhand and 23 in Madhya Pradesh during the crackdown on companies manufacturing spurious medicines.

"Licences of 18 pharma companies have been cancelled for manufacturing spurious and adulterated drugs and for violating GMP (good manufacturing practice).... Besides, 26 firms have been given show-cause notices," an official source said.

Recently, questions have been raised over the quality of drugs manufactured by India-based companies. In February, the Tamil Nadu-based Global Pharma Healthcare recalled its entire lot of eye drop allegedly linked to vision loss in the US.

Before that, India-made cough syrups were allegedly linked to children deaths in the Gambia and Uzbekistan last year.