The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) found one spurious and 220 not of standard quality (NSQ) drug samples from a batch tested randomly as part of the August drug surveillance exercise, according to the drugs regulator’s NSQ and Spurious Drug Alert issued on Tuesday.
The failed samples during routine regulatory surveillance included 29 tested by the Central Drugs Laboratories and 191 identified by the State Drugs Testing Laboratories.
NSQ drugs are those that fail to meet quality standards or specifications, including those pertaining to labelling, dissolution, weight uniformity, and sterility. Besides NSQs, some quality-related defective products are also categorised as adulterated or spurious drugs, which are considered to have the potential to cause serious adverse reactions and even death.
According to the report, one drug sample from the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi was also identified as spurious.
The spurious drug was allegedly manufactured by unauthorised manufacturers using a brand name owned by another company. “The matter is currently under investigation, and action will be taken as per the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Rules, according to the regulatory authority,” said the report.
CDSCO said the list of NSQ and spurious drugs is displayed on its portal every month as part of routine regulatory surveillance activity. The regulator clarified that identifying a drug sample as NSQ is based on the failure of that particular sample in one or more specified quality parameters.
In addition, CDSCO said the finding is specific to the drug product of the batch tested by the government laboratory and does not warrant concerns regarding other drug products available in the market.
As part of continuous regulatory surveillance, drug samples are picked from sales or distribution points and analysed. Afterward, the regulator displays a list of NSQ drugs on the CDSCO portal monthly. The purpose of displaying the NSQ list is to make stakeholders aware of the batches of such drugs identified in the market.
The drugs controller general of India, Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi, earlier said that the CDSCO was taking all measures to drastically bring down the percentage of less efficacious drugs, noting that only around 1.5% of the total drugs being sampled were found less efficacious in recent surveys.
The regulatory surveillance is conducted in collaboration with State drug regulators to identify NSQ and spurious medicines and facilitate their removal from the market.
For August 2026, Central Drugs Laboratory identified 29 drug samples as NSQ, while State Drugs Testing Laboratories identified 191 drug samples as NSQ.
CDSCO said the identification of NSQ and spurious medicines is part of its regular regulatory process aimed at ensuring that such medicines are identified and removed from the market.
“The matter concerning the spurious drug identified in Delhi remains under investigation, and further action will be taken in accordance with the applicable Act and Rules,” added the CDSCO report.
