Hyderabad: The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has identified three batches of commonly used medicines as spurious in its August 2025 alert.
This includes two popular gastric medications and an anti-anxiety injection.
Which drugs were found to be spurious?
The spurious drugs detected include PAN-D capsules (Pantoprazole Gastro-resistant and Domperidone Prolonged-Release Capsules IP), PAN 40 tablets (Pantoprazole Gastro-resistant Tablets IP), and Diazepam Injection IP, all discovered by drug inspectors in Bihar.
The manufacturers of these counterfeit medicines remain under investigation, according to CDSCO records.
Here is a detailed look at the spurious batches identified:
PAN-D capsules (Batch No. 23443507): Manufactured in September 2023 with expiry date of August 2025
PAN 40 tablets (Batch No. 24440993): Manufactured in March 2024 with expiry date of August 2026
Diazepam Injection (Batch No. DA-2403): Manufactured in March 2024 with expiry date of February 2026
About PAN-D, PAN 40 and Diazepam
PAN-D combines pantoprazole, a proton pump inhibitor, with domperidone for treating gastroesophageal reflux disease and related digestive disorders.
PAN 40 contains pantoprazole alone and is extensively prescribed for acid-peptic disorders. Diazepam injection serves as an anti-anxiety and anticonvulsant medication used in emergency medical situations.
This marks the second consecutive month that PAN 40 has appeared in CDSCO’s spurious drug alerts, as the July 2025 report also flagged counterfeit batches of the widely prescribed gastric medication.
Spurious drugs involve deliberate counterfeiting
“Spurious drugs are counterfeit or fake medicines that deliberately misrepresent their identity, composition, or source through intentional deception and fraud. Unlike substandard drugs, which may have manufacturing defects, spurious drugs involve deliberate counterfeiting where criminals create fake versions of genuine medicines with false packaging, incorrect manufacturer information, fake batch numbers, or misleading expiry dates,” Hyderabad-based pharmacologist Dr G Srinivas said.
Counterfeit drugs may have no active ingredients
He added that these counterfeit drugs may contain no active ingredients at all, wrong active ingredients, harmful substances or incorrect dosages of the claimed medication, making them fundamentally different from legitimate medicines that simply fail quality tests.
Under India’s Drugs and Cosmetics Act, spurious drugs represent a serious criminal category involving intentional misrepresentation, whereas substandard or ‘Not of Standard Quality’ (NSQ) drugs are genuine medicines that fail to meet required quality specifications due to manufacturing issues rather than deliberate fraud.
The cost of using spurious drugs
“Spurious drugs cause treatment failure for serious conditions, potential poisoning from toxic substances and worsening of diseases when left effectively untreated. They contribute to antimicrobial resistance through subtherapeutic doses, waste healthcare resources, increase medical costs and impose financial burdens on families paying for ineffective medicines,” said Dr Srinivas.
He pointed out that in the larger context, these counterfeit drugs erode public trust in healthcare systems, create diagnostic confusion for doctors, disproportionately affect vulnerable populations, and undermine public health initiatives while allowing criminals to profit at the expense of patient safety.
Broader quality control issues
Alongside the spurious drug alert, CDSCO’s August 2025 testing revealed a more extensive quality crisis, with 94 batches of medicines and medical products identified as ‘Not of Standard Quality’ (NSQ) after failing to meet required pharmacopeial and safety standards.
The NSQ drugs span multiple therapeutic categories, including antibiotics, cardiac medications, gastrointestinal medicines, hormonal injections, pain relief medications, multivitamins and ophthalmic solutions. Several established pharmaceutical companies were affected by the quality failures.
Notable substandard medicines include:
- Paracetamol Tablets manufactured by Savya Pharmaceuticals
- Tobramycin Eye Drops 0.3% manufactured by Agron Remedies
- Amikacin Sulphate Injection manufactured by Zee Laboratories
- Tacrolimus Ointment 0.1% manufactured by Zoic Biotech
- Rabeprazole Gastro-resistant Tablets IP 20mg manufactured by Morepen Laboratories
- Metronidazole Tablets IP 400mg manufactured by Bochem Healthcare
The quality failures were detected across CDSCO’s central laboratories in Kolkata and Chandigarh, as well as regional State laboratories in Jaipur, Baddi, Guwahati, Telangana, Karnataka, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir.
Types of quality violations
The non-compliances detected in the NSQ drugs include:
- Assay failures (incorrect drug concentration)
- Dissolution and disintegration issues
- Sterility defects
- Particulate matter contamination
- pH deviations from standards
- Incorrect or misleading labelling
Even cosmetic products came under scrutiny, with ‘fast colour mehandi cones’ found containing prohibited chemicals, including Picramic Acid and PPD (para-phenylenediamine).