Health Matters: India should shut down non compliant companies to save its image in the pharmacy world

Since the worrying alerts were issued by global regulators signalling the problems with Made in India medicines, the country’s health ministry swiftly sprung into comprehensive action.

It initiated an extensive campaign to rectify the chaos and weed out the culprits. Objectives of the drive were too many from protecting the image of India as a “pharmacy to the world” to earning back the trust of global regulators and continuing healthy exports.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare shortlisted 209 ‘risky manufacturing sites’ to conduct inspections in three phases, starting in December.The objective of India’s massive drive was to unearth the problems in drug making. So far, around 162 firms have been inspected.

The investigation reports disclose several serious lapses including selling drugs without bills, buying raw materials without invoices, quality compliance issues and manufacturing fake medicines.