Nagaland among states that recorded high NSQ percentage NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 23 (AGENCIES): A national level survey conducted by National Institute of Biologicals over two years has found that around 10 per cent of the drugs in government’s supply chain are substandard or “not of standard quality (NSQ)”. The survey also declared that around 3 per cent of the drugs sourced from retail outlets were marked NSQ. Nagaland was among the states which recorded higher percentage of NSQ from both retail outlets as well as through the government supply chain. NSQ for drugs from retail outlets in Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Puducherry, Gujarat and Punjab ranged from 4.20 to 8.82%. For medicine from the government supply chain, the NSQ for Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab ranged from 11.39 to 17.39%. Drug inspectors drew 47,954 samples and ran tested for quality—if they were NSQ, spurious, expired or adulterated. From the total sample size, 71.6 per cent were drawn from retail outlets, 17.8 per cent from government sources and the rest were from ports.
