The fluorescent lights of the IPC Reference Lab in Ghaziabad hummed a low, steady note. Dr. Ananya Sharma stared at the High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) readout, and her blood ran cold.
She was testing a batch of a common antimalarial drug, Artesunate, sent from a manufacturer in Nagpur. The label claimed it contained 500 mg of active ingredient. The machine said 120 mg. The rest was cheap fillers—chalk, starch, and a nasty binder that could cause kidney failure. ipksindia
Rajan adjusted his glasses, looking at the data. He didn't sigh or curse. He simply nodded. “The quality control failure is theirs. The public health failure is ours to prevent. Issue the alert.” The fluorescent lights of the IPC Reference Lab
“Sir, you need to see this,” she said, walking into the office of Dr. K. S. Rajan, the secretary-cum-scientific director of the IPC. She was testing a batch of a common
Back in her office the next morning, a new email arrived. A manufacturer in Hyderabad had submitted a new generic antibiotic for monograph inclusion. It was a life-saving drug for drug-resistant tuberculosis.