Spurious drugs have many other names — fake drugs, adulterated drugs or counterfeit drugs.

Not of Standard Quality ( NSQ ) drugs are those drugs which fail to comply with the standards set out in the Second Schedule of the Act.

Let us be acquinted with the definition of a spurious drug under The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. (Sec 17 B).

i. If it is manufactured under a name which belongs to another drug.

ii. If it is an imitation or a substitute for an another drug or resembles another drug in a manner likely to deceive or bears upon it or upon its label or container, the name of another drug unless it is plainly and conspicuously marked so as to reveal its true character and its lack of identity with such other drug.

iii. If the label or container bears the name of an individual or company purporting to be the manufacturer of the drug, which individual or company is fictitious or does not exist.

iv. If it has been substituted wholly or in part by an another drug or substance.

v. If it purports to be the product of a manufacturer of whom it is truly not a product.

In this Act, the popular term counterfeit has not been used. The corresponding term that has been used for counterfeit is spurious.

Spurious/substandard/falsely labelled/ falisified and counterfeit (SSFFC) medicines are purposely and fraudulently mislabelled with respect to identity and/or source.

The drugs are classified in the Act as of Standard Quality or Not of Standard Quality. If a drug is declared NSQ by the regulatory authorities, the legal process is initiated including the process of recall.