India: Is your medicine a fake? Government report warns counterfeit drugs are flooding India

There is a high chance that the medicines prescribed routinely may not be helping people as they are just duds. Drugs as common as paracetamol and certain antibiotics, readily available at chemist shops, may be fake and not of standard quality, a government report has warned.
In January 2014, at least 32 medicines sold in hospitals and chemist shops across India, including the national Capital, have failed government tests and have been declared ‘not of standard quality’ by the Health Ministry’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).

The ministry has recently put several medicines that are commonly sold in the market on high alert. Paracetamol tablet IP 500 mg, which is a widely used over-the-counter pain reliever and antipyretic (used to control fever), is one of them. The drug commonly used for headaches and other minor pains, which is manufactured by a Chennai-based company, has failed the government test. Similarly, Needin SR 20, which is used to control blood pressure, and RONFLOX, an antibiotic manufactured by a company in Himachal Pradesh, have been found lacking.