Licences of as many as 18 pharma companies were cancelled on Tuesday for manufacturing spurious medicines after an inspection by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).

The move comes after the drug regulator conducted inspection on 76 companies in 20 states. The name of the companies are not yet known.

“Licences of 18 pharma companies have been cancelled for manufacturing spurious and adulterated drugs and for violating GMP (good manufacturing practice)…. Besides, 26 firms have been given show-cause notices,” an official source said.

The sources said that as part of the special drive, the regulators have identified 203 firms. A majority of the companies are from Himachal Pradesh (70), followed by Uttarakhand (45) and Madhya Pradesh (23).

Recently, questions have been raised over the quality of drugs manufactured by India-based companies.

In February, the Tamil Nadu-based Global Pharma Healthcare recalled its entire lot of eye drop allegedly linked to vision loss in the US. Before that, India-made cough syrups were allegedly linked to children deaths in the Gambia and Uzbekistan last year.

(With inputs from PTI)