"Drugs estimated to be worth Rs 18,000 crore are imported in India annually and China is the main source of importing drugs in bulk. About 60 per cent of the drugs come from China, while the rest come from Italy, Japan, Europe and the USA.
"It has come to notice that most of the cases of sub-standard drugs, drugs with dubious origin or suspected label are coming from China. To check such infiltration, we have put China on the radar," said an official of the Drug Controller General of India (DGCI) on condition of anonymity.
Notably, India imports medicines like antibiotics, anti-diabetic, anti-hypertensive, anti-cancer and other regular drugs from several countries and to keep a tab on such imports, the government has put in place an electronic platform -- ICEGATE -- to check their quality and authenticity.
Under this programme, the government has framed uniform procedures for sampling and inspection of the drug consignments that come from overseas.
More From This Section
Drug imports are only allowed from companies whose manufacturing units are registered with the Indian drug regulator.
However, at the domestic front, clandestine operators are much less because regular inspections and sampling of drugs are possible within the country.
DGCI in collaboration with state drug controllers have also launched risk-based inspections all across the country to check the quality of medicine and the manufacturing premises for GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice).