167 drug samples flagged 'not of standard quality' in December 2025

New Delhi, Jan 21 (PTI) The central drugs laboratories found 74 drug samples manufactured by various firms to be "not of standard quality (NSQ)" in its monthly drug alert for December, a health ministry statement said on Wednesday.
     Additionally, the state drug testing laboratories have identified 93 drug samples as NSQ, they said.
     As per routine regulatory surveillance activity, the list of Not of Standard Quality (NSQ) and Spurious drugs is put up on the CDSCO portal on a monthly basis.
     "For the month of December-2025, Central Drugs Laboratories have identified 74 Drug Samples to be Not of Standard Quality (NSQ) and State Drugs Testing Laboratories have identified 93 Drugs Samples as Not of Standard Quality (NSQ)," the statement said.
     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.
     Further, in December 2025, four drug samples from North Zone (Ghaziabad) and one each from FDA Ahmedabad, Bihar and Maharashtra were identified as spurious drugs, which were manufactured by unauthorised manufacturers using brand names owned by other companies.
     The matter is under investigation, and action will be taken as per the law, the statement said.
     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.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)