India Says Inferior Drug Ingredients From China Hard to Swallow

India’s drug authority has accused several Chinese pharmaceutical suppliers of providing poor-quality raw ingredients, and may blacklist them, news agency IANS reported Sunday.

New Delhi issued notices to eight Chinese drugmakers after a special inspection team of the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) found that the companies were supplying substandard ingredients to the south Asian country.

When asked about the probe, a manager from Shanghai Modern Hasen (Shangqiu) Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., from North China’s Henan province, told Caixin that “some Indian people” inspected the firm’s factory in November and issued a notice “recently,” without giving further details.

Besides Modern Hasen, seven other companies were also on the list. Some of China’s other major medicine ingredient suppliers are Zhuhai United Laboratories Co. Ltd., Guangzhou Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical Holdings and Qingdao Bright Moon Seaweed Group Co. Ltd.

Those companies either did not reply to Caixin’s request for comment or couldn’t be reached for comment.

“The action against them will soon be decided by the government,” said a senior officer from DCGI, according to Indian media. “This will be harsh as we don’t want the quality of drugs in India compromised.”

China supplies 70% of India’s pharmaceutical ingredients, IANS said, citing data from the latter’s Ministry for Chemicals and Fertilisers.

New Delhi has also decided to inspect ingredients from other countries, such as the United States, Italy and several other European nations, IANS reported, citing sources in DCGI.

Contact reporter Coco Feng (renkefeng@caixin.com)