Medicines Supplied to UP Hospitals Fail Quality Tests, FSDA Probe Reveals
Patients in Uttar Pradesh’s state-run hospitals may have been consuming ineffective or unsafe medicines over the past year. A probe by the Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA) has found that 51 medicines and injections supplied to government hospitals failed quality checks.
For patients like Shahnaz, whose brother has been under treatment at Lucknow’s Civil Hospital for months without improvement, the findings confirm long-standing fears. Doctors had eventually advised her to buy medicines from outside—an experience echoed by many across the state.
Why the Drugs Failed
At Lucknow University’s Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, experts explained how the tests are conducted.
- Standard tablets should dissolve within 15 minutes; if 12 samples from the same batch fail, the medicine is deemed substandard.
- Some antibiotics, like ciprofloxacin, failed the dissolution test, meaning they did not break down in the stomach within the required 30 minutes.
- In other cases, the drug content was much lower than claimed—for instance, 400 mg found in a 500 mg tablet.
- Certain injections failed sterility and particulate matter tests.
“Even a 5 mg shortfall can render a medicine useless,” said Professor Pushpendra Kumar Tripathi, director of the institute.
Action Against Suppliers
In June, the FSDA wrote to the principal secretary of the health department, seeking accountability from drug manufacturers. Principal Secretary Partha Sarthi Sen Sharma confirmed that the UP Medical Supplies Corporation Limited (UPMSCL) has:
- Withdrawn defective stocks from hospitals
- Imposed penalties on suppliers
- Issued showcause notices to pharmaceutical companies
The revelations have raised serious concerns about the reliability of medicines supplied free of cost to poor and middle-class patients in government hospitals across Uttar Pradesh.
