New Delhi: The Central government has suspended the licence of 18 pharma companies in the country over the poor quality of drugs.
In a crackdown aimed at curbing production and sale of substandard and spurious medicines, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) had inspected 76 companies and the licenses of 18 have been suspended, while 26 have been served show cause notice over poor quality of drugs.
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The Centre has also cancelled the product permission of three pharma companies, said a senior officer of the DCGI. In all, action has been taken on 70 companies in Himachal Pradesh and 45 in Uttarakhand and 23 in Madhya Pradesh during the government crackdown on companies manufacturing spurious medicines, official sources said.
According to reports, most of the companies against whom action were taken are registered in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. “The license of Himalaya Meditek Pt Ltd registered in Dehradun was suspended for manufacturing medicines last year and permission for it to manufacture 12 products was cancelled on February 7, this year,” the officials said.
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The operation was carried out jointly by the officials of the Centre and the state governments over the past few months. The action was taken against pharma companies across 20 states. The special drive had been initiated to stop the production of ‘Not of Standard Quality’ medicine and to ensure Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) of medicine across the country, said the source.
The source said that the DCGI’s action was taken from last 15 days in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal.
The source said that the special drive will continue to stop the production of substandard medicines in the country.
