Are Online Indian Pharmacies Reliable Sources of Drugs?

ByShaun Snapp

Executive Summary

  • Indian drugs and online pharmacy India — offer inexpensive options, and this makes India a source that is interesting to many.
  • However, what is the quality of Indian drugs?

Introduction

Online pharmacy India offer excellent prices on drugs. However, there has been a long-term question regarding the reliability of the drugs from these pharmacies as they sell 100% Indian-manufactured drugs. In this article, we investigate this topic and draw startling conclusions.

About Online Indian Pharmacies

The following quotes are from the article How Reliable Are Your Generic Drugs From India?

Now that 88 percent of all prescriptions are dispensed as generic medications, the quality of such drugs is more important than ever. But the vast majority of them now come from abroad, where FDA oversight has historically been dismal. The active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and the so-called inactive ingredients now come primarily from all over the world: Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Slovakia, Thailand, Turkey and goodness knows where else. Historically, the FDA hasn’t even known where all the chemicals in your medicine originated. There is no requirement to put country of origin on the drug label.

This naturally brings up a serious issue — as if the manufacturing in India is problematic, and Indian pharmacies provide 100% Indian manufactured drugs, then the pharmacies themselves are a problematic source.

In just the last few weeks, the FDA reprimanded the Indian drug manufacturer Wockhardt for hiding unwelcome test results and deleting data. This is not the first time Wockhardt has run into trouble. Since April of last year the company has recalled hundreds of millions of tablets and capsules. They included popular blood pressure medicines such as amlodipine and lisinopril as well as the antibiotic azithromycin and the sleeping pill zolpidem.

Ranbaxy Laboratories, one of the largest of the Indian generic pharmaceutical firms, has had multiple run-ins with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. A few years ago this company pleaded guilty to felony charges after being accused of falsifying data. The company paid $500 million in fines.

Over the last five years the FDA has banned products from 44 different Indian drug-making facilities. That should give insurance companies some cause for alarm when they insist that their customers must use generic rather than brand name drugs.

Comment #1: FDA Cannot Monitor All Offshore Indian and Chinese Manufacturers?

These quotes are from the previous references article, and The Indian pharmaceutical industry is in denial over drug-quality charges, Which I will address after the quotes.

I received my first generics from Accord, Zydus, and Aurobindo. It has been such a nightmare, I now buy brand Klonopin and attempt to get as many drugs as possible from Teva Canada. Your drugs are not working because the FDA cannot monitor all of these off shore Indian and Chinese manufacturers. I have had reputable pharmacy reps tell me that these drug companies check flight manifests to see when FDA Americans are coming. As well as giving them tap water to sicken them so they have to give up the inspection and stay in their hotel. How do I know this? I am a doctor. Please send letter after letter to the FDA return receipt requested to try and effect change. Bring drug manufacturing back to the US. THIS HAS GOT TO STOP!!!!

The Book Bottle of Lies

The best-known and one of the only books on Indian pharmaceuticals is called Bottle of Lies. The article The Indian pharmaceutical industry is in denial over drug-quality charges covers some of these topics and the retaliation by the Indian pharmaceutical industry and Indian government regarding the allegations in this book.

The Ranbaxy Scandal

Indian pharma company Ranbaxy was caught red-handed with fraud by FDA inspectors. It is the most famous case…