Low quality drug delays Telangana's annual deworming campaign
Hyderabad: With just two months left till the state's annual deworming campaign begins, officials of the Telangana Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Cooperation (TGMSIDS) have handed the task of manufacturing over 1 crore doses of albendazole tablets by June-end to a new company.
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While the campaign was rescheduled to be conducted in Aug, the date is yet to be finalised.
Telangana postponed its national deworming day campaign in Feb this year after the Union health ministry's Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) flagged nearly two dozen batches of albendazole tablets as not of standard quality (NSQ) in consecutive monthly reports of March and April.
Acknowledging the violation, an official from the Drug Control Administration (DCA) said that the Madhya Pradesh-based manufacturing company tasked with manufacturing these tablets was recently blacklisted.
"A company is blacklisted if there are three continuous NSQs. We filed a case against the manufacturer due to repeated violations. A chargesheet will be filed soon, and further investigation will be conducted.
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Speaking to TOI, an official from the TGMSIDS said that the order to manufacture the albendazole tablets was given to the concerned company in Nov last year, and the delivery was due for Jan 2025.
"The usual time for delivery is 60 days.
Of the total 25 batches that the company delivered, as many as 19 were found NSQ. This is why we could not conduct the deworming campaign in Feb as there was a shortage of these tablets. While many states conduct the campaign in two rounds (Feb and Aug), we only follow the Feb cycle as the malnutrition and worm infestation in children in the state does not prevail to the extent it was 20 years ago," explained the official.
In March this year, the TGMSIDS officials gave the order to produce 1 crore albendazole tablets to a New Delhi-based company with its factory based in Haryana.
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The manufacturer has been asked to produce 1.3 lakh albendazole tablets daily to meet the target in time. "As many as 16 lakh tablets have been supplied so far," said the official.
Albendazole is an anti-parasitic tablet commonly used to treat infections caused by worms, such as tapeworm, ringworm, and others in children. The tablets are distributed every year to children in govt schools and pregnant mothers by the auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) on National Deworming Day in Feb to improve children's overall health, nutritional status, and educational outcomes.
A total of 1.12 crore albendazole tablets were distributed by the officials in 2024 to children aged between 1 and 19 years, including those in govt schools, and others. Of this, 1.42 lakh tablets were also provided to pregnant women in the state.
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