Calcium and vitamin D3 supplements, anti-diabetic pills, hypertension drugs and other medicines have failed quality tests conducted by India’s drug regulator.

The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has declared over 50 drugs as “Not Conforming to Standard Quality (NSQ) alert” in its latest monthly drug alert list.

NSQ alerts are generated from random monthly sampling done by state drug officers.

Vitamin C and D3 tablets Shelcal, vitamin B complex and vitamin C softgels, antacid Pan-D, paracetamol tablets IP 500 mg, anti-diabetic drug Glimepiride and hypertension drug Telmisartan and several others are among the 53 top-selling medicines that failed the drug regulator’s quality check.

These medicines are being manufactured by Hetero Drugs, Alkem Laboratories, Hindustan Antibiotics Limited (HAL), Karnataka Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals Limited.

Metronidazole, a widely used drug to treat stomach infections and manufactured by PSU Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd (HAL), is among the drugs that failed the quality test.

Similarly, Shelcal, distributed by Torrent Pharmaceuticals and manufactured by Uttarakhand-based Pure & Cure Healthcare, also failed the test.

Additionally, a drug testing laboratory in Kolkata has declared Alkem Health Sciences’ antibiotics Clavam 625 and Pan D as spurious.

The same laboratory found Hyderabad-based Hetero’s Cepodem XP 50 dry suspension, prescribed for children with severe bacterial infections, to be substandard.

Concerns have also been raised over the quality of paracetamol tablets of Karnataka Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals Limited.

The drug regulator has shared two lists of medicines that failed quality tests. While one contains 48 popular medicines, the other list contains responses from pharmaceutical companies that failed these tests. However, the responses show that the companies refused to take responsibility for the drugs, saying they are “fake”.

The drug manufacturers’ response column states, “The genuine manufacturer (as per label claim) has informed that the disputed batch of the product is not manufactured by them and is a counterfeit drug. The product has been claimed to be counterfeit, however, it will be investigated.”

In August, the CDSCO banned over 156 fixed-dose drug combinations from the Indian market that were “likely to pose a risk to humans”. These drugs included popular fever medicines, pain relievers and allergy pills.