Given at Delhi Govt Hosps, Antiepileptic Medicine 'Fails Test'; CBI Probe Suggested for Spurious Drugs

A drug being supplied at Delhi government hospitals has failed the quality test. Sodium valproate, an antiepileptic medication that controls seizures or fits, has reportedly “not met the standard quality”.

The report was issued by the Regional Drugs Testing Laboratory (RDTL) in Chandigarh on December 22. This comes after L-G VK Saxena recommended a CBI inquiry into the procurement and supply of alleged spurious drugs to Mohalla clinics and some hospitals under the city government.

Certain drugs, available at government health facilities, failed quality standard tests and were found potentially life-threatening for a vast population as they are prescribed in treatment of a range of illnesses. The drugs include antibiotics, steroids, anti-anxiety pills and a medicine given to hypertension patients.

Drugs which failed the quality tests are:

• Cephalexin, an antibiotic used for treatment of lungs and Urinary Tract infections.

• Dexamethasone, a steroid for curing life-threatening inflammation in lungs, joints and swelling in the body.

• Levetiracetam, an anti-epilepsy and anti-anxiety psychiatric drug.

• Amlodepin, an antihypertensive medicine.

A report in The New Indian Express quoted officials as saying that the drug quality test was ordered after receiving complaints from several patients.

Drug samples were collected from three hospitals, IHBAS, Lok Nayak and Deen Dayal Upadhyay, that cater to lakhs of patients. The drug controller randomly collected the 86 samples, the report stated.

Arvind Kejriwal government’s flagship Mohalla clinics in Delhi is often in news. In August, Karnataka health minister Dinesh Gundu Rao visited the government-run primary health centres in the national capital, and called them “overhyped”, “not a game-changer”.

He compared the initiative with those in the southern states and said Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka also have such models. “It (clinics) is not like the way it is made out to be.”

Almost an hour after the visit, Gundu Rao wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that he returned feeling ‘disappointed’. He claimed that there were hardly any people in the clinic and said clinics in Karnataka have more facilities.

“Visited a Mohalla Clinic in Delhi with hardly any people there. Our Clinics in Karnataka have more facilities including a laboratory to do immediate tests for patients. I guess it is overhyped and I came back feeling disappointed,” he wrote.

“The way it’s being projected, there are so many other states, including Karnataka, where we have a better system…we have namma clinics…and we are doing things in a much better manner,” the state health minister was quoted by news agency PTI.