Shimla
With over 600 pharmaceutical industries, the state has become medicinal hub of India as it caters to around 40% domestic demand. But due to constantly failing the quality tests conducted by Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), the industry is facing a major crisis. Since January this year samples of 56 companies have failed the quality test.
In August, CDSCO had released a list of 20 pharmaceutical companies whose samples had failed the quality test declaring it to be spurious, adulterated and misbranded, out of which three companies were from Himachal Pradesh. Earlier in January, list of 25 companies was released whose samples failed the quality test and of them 10 companies were from state, in February among the 27 companies failing test, 12 were from HP while in March, 7 from a list of 18 companies.
In April this year CDSCO had released the list of 17 companies whose samples had failed the test, of them 7 were from HP, in May, 5 companies from the state were in the list of 18 companies failing the test, in June, 8 companies figured in the list of 17 companies while in July, 4 companies from state were mentioned in the list of 13 companies. Pharmaceutical industry of the state is worth Rs 25,000 crore and it exports around Rs 9,000 crore worth of medicines. Of the total 700 units established in the state so far, 600 are pharmaceuticals units while the rest are cosmetics units.
