As many as 131 drugs samples were identified as not of standard quality (NSQ) during the month of March.

“For the month of March, the Central Drugs Laboratories have identified 70 drug samples to be NSQ. The State Drugs Testing Laboratories also identified 61 drugs samples as NSQ,” the Union Health Ministry said on Friday.

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As per routine regulatory surveillance activity, the list of NSQ and spurious drugs are being displayed on CDSCO portal on monthly basis, it said.

The Ministry said that the identification of drug samples as NSQ is done based on failure of the drug sample in one or the other specified quality parameters.

The failure is specific to the drug products of the batch tested by the government laboratory and it does not warrant any concerns on the other drug products available in the market, it said.

Informing that one drug sample from West Bengal was identified as a spurious drug, which was manufactured by an unauthorized manufacturer using a brand name owned by other company, the Minister said the matter is under investigation and action will be taken as per Act and Rules.

This action of identifying NSQ and spurious medicines is taken on a regular basis in collaboration with state regulators to ensure that these drugs are identified and removed from the market, it said.