Thirty-nine drugs have failed quality tests so far in 2026, according to the Medical Supplies Division of the Health Ministry.
Eighteen of them were manufactured in India and four were produced locally. The rest originated in China, Bangladesh, France, the Netherlands and Ireland, the ministry said.
Some of the medicines identified as substandard have since been withdrawn, withheld or discontinued.
The ministry said 650 drug quality failures have been recorded since 2017. The highest annual figure in that period was 96 in 2019, followed by 86 in 2022.
Background
Drug quality became a subject of sustained public scrutiny in 2023 after reports of complications and deaths linked to certain medicines. The issue resurfaced recently following reports of two deaths allegedly connected to complications involving Ondansetron, a drug used in anaesthesia. Investigations into those incidents remain under way.
The Daily Mirror report, by Sheain Fernandopulle, does not state how many batches or how large a volume of stock each of the 39 failures represents, nor which specific products were involved.
Readers should note that the figures above cover 2026 to date and are not comparable with the totals published in earlier years, which were compiled on different reporting periods.
Sources: Daily Mirror.
