Delhi Government’s Department of Vigilance has written to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for a CBI inquiry into the spurious drugs supplied to hospitals in the national capital. Five medicines- amlodipine, levetiracetam, pantoprazole, cephalexin and dexamethasone have been found spurious during laboratory tests. These medicines were supplied to Delhi government-run hospital-Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narain, Deen Dayal Upadhayay, Institute of Human Behaviour & Allied Sciences (IHBAS) .
“ Lt. Governor, Delhi, considering the aforesaid facts based on material records, has directed that “the matter of Mohalla Clinics is already entrusted to CBI, this case, which may, inter alia, also involve supply of these failed “Not of Standard Quality” drugs to such clinics, may also be entrusted to the Central Agency, especially in light of the fact that the investigation therein involves multi inter-state stakeholder including Central Procurement Agency, Directorate of Health Service Delhi government, suppliers/dealers, manufacturers in other states and other state agencies,” Department of Vigilance said in a note to MHA. The vigilance department said that a meeting was held on 24th December in which the Controller of Drugs and Deputy Controller of Drugs, GNCTD and Drug Inspectors were present. Subsequently, a joint exercise was undertaken by the Drugs Control Department on 25.07.2023 to collect the samples of medicines on random basis from Delhi Government Hospitals for the purpose of sending them to approved labs for test/analysis as per the provisions of Drugs and Cosmetic Act, 1940. Three teams were deployed to lift samples from Delhi Government Hospitals that includes IHBAS, LNJP and DDU.
The samples were lifted as per the procedure prescribed under law and thereafter the samples were sent for testing to various laboratories. The reports of the Government Analyst have substantiated the fact that the efficacy of the medicines being distributed to various patients in Delhi government hospitals are “Not of Standard Quality”.
It further said that as per Section 25 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, the report by the Government Analyst is the conclusive and is accordingly punishable under section 27 of the said act. It is noticed that various companies were involved in the distribution chain between the manufacturers and the end users i.e. hospitals (patients).
The vigilance departments stated that any action for supplying such kind of “Not of Standard Quality” drugs should not be confined to Central Procurement Agency (CPA) and there is a need to investigate the entire supply chain viz. role of suppliers who procured from the manufacturers and provided supply to the end users i.e. hospitals (patients). Besides, there is a need to lift the corporate veil to understand the gravity and motives of supplying “Not of Standard Quality” drugs.
“In this context, it is not out of place to mention that the matter of “Mohalla Clinics was already entrusted to the CBI and Preliminary Enquiry (PE) was also registered vide PE No. PE-DAI-2018-A-0002 dated 13.02.2018. It needs to be investigated whether the same drugs which have been procured by Central Procurement Agency (CPA) are also being distributed to the patients through “Mohalla Clinics” or not,” read the note.
‘The government analyst have substantiated the fact that the efficacy of the medicines being distributed to various patients in Delhi Government hospitals are “Not of Standard Quality”. Providing medicines which are “Not of Standard Quality” to the citizens of Delhi is a serious issue and amounts to compromising with public health and safety besides spending huge budgetary resources on such drugs which are “Not of Standard Quality”. The implications of distributing drugs which are “Not of Standard Quality” is far and wide with reference to the public health,” it added.
