At least 53 common medicines – including calcium and vitamin D3 supplements, anti-diabetes pills and blood pressure drugs have failed quality tests by the Central Drugs Safety Standards Control Organisation. According to the drug regulator, in its latest monthly alert list, the medicines were Not of Standard Quality (NSQ) Alert.

NSQ alerts are generated from random monthly sampling conducted by state drug officers.

The top-selling supplements that have failed the tests include:

• Vitamin C and D3 tablets
• Shelcal
• Vitamin B complex
• Vitamin C soft gels
• Antiacid Pan-D
• Paracetamol tablets IP 500 mg
• Anti-diabetic drug Glimepiride
• The blood pressure drug Telmisartan

According to news reports, these medicines have been manufactured by Hetero Drugs, Alkem Laboratories, Hindustan Antibiotics Limited (HAL), Karnataka Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Meg Lifesciences, Pure and Cure Healthcare.

According to the responses by drugmakers, the companies have categorically denied taking responsibility, saying that they are "spurious". "The actual manufacturer (as per label claim) has informed that the impugned batch of the product has not been manufactured by them and that it is a spurious drug. The product is purported to be spurious, however, the same is subject to the outcome of the investigation," the column for the drugmakers’ reply read.

In August, the CDSCO banned over 156 fixed-dose drug combinations in the market which they said were likely to be involved in risk to humans. These medicines included popular fever drugs, painkillers, and allergy tablets.

According to the medicines World Health Organisation, the use of ineffective quality, and harmful drugs can cause various dangerous health issues, including:

• Therapeutic failure
• Exacerbation of disease
• Resistance to medicines
• Coma
• Death

Experts say while substandard and spurious drugs are often difficult to detect because they are designed to appear identical to the genuine product, their repeated usage undermines confidence in health systems, health professionals, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and distributors.

Also, poor-quality drugs can cause drug resistance - which threatens the health of populations today and in the future. Substandard medicines also compromise the treatment of chronic and infectious diseases, causing disease progression and death.

Experts also say in many parts of the world, fake and substandard versions of essential medicines generate more revenue for organized crime networks than further causing suffering to vulnerable populations.

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