In the first five months of 2025, 305 samples of a wide range of drugs – including lifesaving medication – drawn from pharmacies across Karnataka failed quality tests. Nearly a quarter failed more than one test, and almost half were injectable drugs. These tests were done by Karnataka’s Drug Control Department (DCD).

TNM found that the drugs flagged as Not of Standard Quality (NSQ) between January and May 27 included commonly prescribed medicines for cough, fever, high cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure, emergency drugs used during cardiac arrest, diuretics to increase urine production and reduce blood pressure, steroids to treat inflammation and autoimmune diseases, antibiotics, depression, anxiety, epilepsy, arthritis, alcohol de-addiction, and severe vomiting (such as in chemotherapy). Also among the failed samples were vitamins, antacids, antidotes for pesticides, and painkillers. 

Most of the 153 manufacturing companies were based in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and West Bengal. A handful were based in Tamil Nadu, Goa, Telangana, Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh. Nine companies were based in Karnataka. 

The manufacture, sale, import and quality control of drugs in India are governed by legal and scientific standards set by the Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP). Drugs that fail the quality tests prescribed in the IP are designated NSQ, as they pose varying degrees of risk to patients who consume them.

Under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940, the DCD is supposed to test drugs from pharmacies across the state and initiate the recall of NSQ drugs so that the public does not consume them.

In this investigation, we inspected these lists and spoke to pharmacies to understand the recall process. Though government officials claim that recalling such drugs is a continual process, our conversations with pharmacies suggest that the system is simply not rigorous – meaning that people can still end up buying their medicines from unaware pharmacists with potentially adverse effects on their health.