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Raids expose sale of fake & poor-quality drugs in discount pharmacies across Kerala
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Peethaambaran Kunnathoor, Chennai
November 24 , 2025
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The Kerala Drugs Control Department is reeling from a massive scandal after raids across Kozhikode, Thrissur, and Thiruvananthapuram exposed a terrifying trade of fake and poor-quality medicines in discount pharmacies.
These raids have starkly highlighted the Kerala drug control department’s shameful inefficiency and a completely unregulated market.
According to sources, the raids, which regulatory officers had been reluctant to carry out for years, were only executed under direct orders and pressure from the state health minister. The findings proved the necessity of the intervention, confirming that the department's hesitancy allowed a widespread counterfeit drug racket to flourish.
The pharmaceutical trade sector stakeholders have demanded the immediate intervention of the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI). They are seeking a direct order to the state government to implement strict, comprehensive monitoring across Kerala's entire drug distribution system in light of the recent raids.
Sources reveal a systemic weakness in inspection and enforcement, a lapse that marketing companies, mostly from Ernakulam, are aggressively exploiting to push substandard drugs through retail stores offering unsustainable 20 per cent to 40 per cent discounts. The practice of offering deep discounts on Maximum Retail Price (MRP), which first raised suspicion, is now confirmed to be the root of a severe public health crisis. This crisis is primarily caused by an unregulated distribution network where Kerala is reported to have the highest number of medicine marketing companies in India. These firms exploit the lack of oversight to procure drugs from poorly regulated manufacturing facilities in North Indian states, bypassing quality checks and flooding discount pharmacies with substandard and fake medicines, creating an immediate and grave risk to the state's consumers.
Pharma traders who spoke to Pharmabiz said, this entire crisis originates from a defective inspection system that is reportedly inconsistent and open to corruption. Conventional drug traders are up in arms, claiming that regulatory officers actively favour inspecting ordinary medical shops that strictly follow MRP rules. In contrast, the discount pharmacies, which are notorious for public quality complaints, are rarely inspected.
An office-bearer of the medical shop owners’ group in Kottayam district explained the unfairness clearly that the drug inspectors usually check a normal medical shop completely, but then they just ignore the discount pharmacy right next door. The drugs department says this laziness is because they do not have enough inspectors. But the people in the medicine business say this is just a lame excuse and that the department is simply avoiding the real problem.
It is learnt from traders’ community that the gravity of the situation is the complete failure to target the core suppliers, that is the powerful marketing companies. These firms are reportedly importing the fake medicines, often from northern states, and flooding the discount outlets. Despite multiple, specific complaints filed with the drugs control department, no significant raids or inspections have been conducted at the premises of these major players, who are allegedly sitting on huge stocks of substandard medicines.
When Pharmabiz spoke to some district associations of the AKCDA (All Kerala Chemists and Druggists Association), they stressed a key financial point that a regular medical shop's profit is based on a 16 per cent commission for the wholesaler and 20 per cent for the retailer. When you add the 8 to 10 per cent overhead costs, they insist it is financially impossible for any legitimate store to offer discounts between 20 and 40 per cent. This suggests the deep-discount model is nothing more than a front for the distribution of dangerous, spurious medicines.
Another allegation against the Kerala drug control department is that the officials are reluctant to inspect pharmacies run by doctors alongside their clinics. Many of these are allegedly promoted by drug manufacturers and are also retailing fake or substandard medicines. Industry stakeholders maintain that the drug regulatory agency, despite being fully aware of these illicit operations, consistently avoids inspecting these outlets, thereby creating yet another unregulated pipeline for potentially harmful products to reach the consumer market.
Health activists and honest drug traders are now demanding urgent, high-level intervention. They have made a clear appeal for the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to step in decisively and direct the Kerala government to completely overhaul its drugs control department, turning it into a robust and effective enforcement body for the benefit of the public. They have also strongly highlighted the severe ethical violations by pharmacists in these discount stores, urging the state DC, who holds an ex-officio position in the state pharmacy council, to take necessary action by recommending the suspension of the registrations of these unethical practitioners.
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