330 Drug Samples Fail Quality Tests in September: What CDSCO’s Alert Means for Patients

India’s drug regulator says 330 samples of medicines tested by government laboratories in September 2026 failed one or more quality tests, and one more sample turned out to be a fake sold under another company’s brand name. The figures come from the monthly drug alert of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) and were reported on Friday, October 23. It is the highest of the recent monthly counts we could check, but the number alone does not tell you whether the medicine in your cupboard is safe.

At a glance

• CDSCO’s September 2026 alert lists 330 samples as not of standard quality: 42 found by central laboratories and 288 by state drug-testing laboratories.
• One sample from Delhi was declared spurious, allegedly made by unauthorised manufacturers using a brand name owned by another company. The case is under investigation.
• The regulator says each failure applies only to the batch tested, so patients should check batch numbers rather than abandon a medicine or a brand.

The count over recent months

CDSCO publishes two kinds of monthly findings: drugs declared “not of standard quality” (NSQ) and drugs declared spurious. The table below uses figures reported from the official alerts by News On AIR, PTI, ANI and ETV Bharat.

September’s total is about three times the 112 reported for the same month last year and 50% higher than August. Almost all of that growth came from state laboratories, whose count rose from 60 to 288 in a year, while central laboratories actually found fewer failures (42 against 52). The rise is striking but is not proof that medicines have become worse: the reports do not say how many samples were tested in September or whether more state laboratories are now reporting. Without the testing volume, the trend cannot be judged properly.

For scale, ETV Bharat, citing official data in August, reported that more than 1.41 lakh samples were tested in 2025-26. Of these, 3,012 were declared NSQ and 283 were found spurious or adulterated. That works out to roughly 2% of tested samples failing a quality test over the year.

Substandard and spurious are not the same thing

Not of standard quality

A sample is declared NSQ when it fails one or more specified quality parameters. An official quoted by ETV Bharat listed typical tests such as dissolution (how well a tablet releases its medicine in the body), assay (whether it contains the stated amount of the active ingredient) and uniformity (whether every tablet carries a similar dose). The medicine is still made by a licensed company under its own name. CDSCO stresses that the failure “does not warrant concerns about other drug products available in the market” and relates only to the batch tested.

Spurious

A spurious drug is a counterfeit. CDSCO’s guidance on spurious drugs, summarising the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, covers a medicine that is made under a name belonging to another drug, imitates or substitutes another drug in a way likely to deceive, names a fictitious manufacturer, has been substituted wholly or in part by another substance, or claims to be the product of a company that did not make it. The September case from Delhi falls in the last category: according to the alert, unauthorised manufacturers used a brand name owned by another company. CDSCO says the matter is under investigation and action will be taken under the Act and its rules.

What the alert leaves out

The news reports of the September alert name no products, manufacturers or batch numbers, and they do not say which states the 288 state-laboratory samples came from. Those details sit in the lists CDSCO says it displays on its portal every month. Earlier alerts show that everyday medicines do appear. ETV Bharat’s report on July listed, among others, an amoxycillin and potassium clavulanate tablet, ibuprofen 400 mg tablets and a vitamin combination tablet. A listing refers to one batch, not every strip on sale.

The regulator also says NSQ and spurious drugs are identified regularly with state regulators so that the affected batches can be removed from the market.

A five-step check for the medicines at home

1. Read the strip. Note the brand, manufacturer, batch number and expiry date printed on the strip or carton.
2. Compare with the official list. Look up the monthly NSQ and spurious drug alerts on the CDSCO website and match the batch number, not just the brand name.
3. Scan the code where there is one. Since August 1, 2023, the 300 top-selling brands listed in Schedule H2 of the Drugs Rules must carry a barcode or QR code that helps verify authenticity. CDSCO’s guidance describes three steps: find the code on the label, scan it with a phone, and read the product details that appear. The Pioneer reported in June 2026 that the rule has been extended to vaccines, cancer drugs and narcotic and psychotropic medicines from July 1, 2026, and to antimicrobials from July 1, 2028.
4. Buy from a licensed chemist and keep the bill. It helps trace the source if a batch is later flagged.
5. Do not stop treatment on your own. If a batch you hold appears on a list, speak to your doctor or pharmacist about a replacement from a different batch. Stopping treatment abruptly can be riskier than the flagged batch.

If you suspect a fake, for example because the code does not scan or the details do not match the strip, report it to your state drug control department, which works with CDSCO on such cases.

What comes next

The alerts follow a regular rhythm: the August findings were released on September 22 and the September findings on October 23, so the October list can be expected around late November. Worth watching: the outcome of the Delhi counterfeit case, the second Delhi finding in two months, and whether CDSCO starts publishing how many samples it tested, which would show whether the rising count reflects more testing or a real slide in quality.

Drug quality is part of a wider debate over the price and supply of medicines in India; see our report on the Supreme Court’s questions on medicine price controls, and more national news in our India section.

Sources

• News On AIR: CDSCO flags 330 drug samples as not of standard quality in September 2026
• Asianet Newsable (ANI): CDSCO reports 330 drugs as not of standard quality in September 2026
• The News Mill (ANI inputs): CDSCO identifies 330 substandard drugs and one spurious medicine
• The Pioneer (PTI): 220 drug samples fail quality tests in August
• ETV Bharat: CDSCO flags 280 drug samples as NSQ or spurious in July
• The Week (PTI): 112 drug samples found not of standard quality in September 2025
• CDSCO: Guidance for Identification and Verification of Spurious Drugs (PDF)
• The Pioneer: QR codes made mandatory on vaccines, antimicrobials, cancer and narcotic drugs

Drafted with AI assistance; fact-checked and edited by Ajay Mahawar, Taaza Khabar.