In early 2025 the Department of Drug Administration ordered four products off the market in one notice: a batch of tablets that failed quality standards, a calcium tablet, an eye and ear drop that failed a sterility test, and an injection that failed the same test. None of them were fakes made in a back room. They were registered products from licensed manufacturers that did not meet their own specification.

Most bad medicine in Nepal is not counterfeit. It is real medicine that failed a test, or medicine that was never registered here.

Fake, substandard and unregistered are different problems

  • Falsified (fake) medicine pretends to be something it is not. It might contain the wrong ingredient, too little of the right one, or nothing at all.
  • Substandard medicine is a real, registered product that failed a quality test, for example it does not dissolve properly or has less active ingredient than stated.
  • Unregistered medicine has not been approved by the DDA for sale in Nepal, often brought in informally across the border.

A study of DDA recall notices from 2010 to 2020 found that 62% of recalled products were substandard, 11% were falsified and 27% were not registered. Domestic and imported products were recalled at similar rates, so "imported" is not a guarantee either way.

Check the pack before you open it

You do not need training to notice most problems. Look for:

  • Printing. Blurry text, spelling mistakes in the brand or company name, colours that look off compared with the pack you bought last month.
  • Batch number, manufacturing date and expiry date. All three should be printed or embossed on the outer box and on the strip itself, and they should match each other.
  • Manufacturer and, for imports, the importer. A box with no company name or address is a warning sign.
  • MRP. The maximum retail price should be printed on the pack. Pharmacies should not charge more than that. A price far below what you usually pay can also be a signal.
  • Seal and strip. Torn foil, resealed boxes, loose tablets in an unmarked bag.

Check the medicine itself

Once you open it, compare it with what you know. Tablets that crumble, capsules that are sticky or cracked, a syrup that has separated or changed colour, or a taste and smell that is different from before. If something looks different from your last pack, ask the pharmacist before taking it. Sometimes the manufacturer has changed the tablet colour. Sometimes it is a problem. The pharmacist can usually tell you which.

Check the DDA records

The DDA runs an online system called DAMS (Drug Administration Management System). From the DDA website you can search registered medicines by their active ingredient and see which brands have market authorisation. The same system has a public pharmacy search, so you can check whether a pharmacy has a DDA licence.

The DDA also posts recall notices on its website, with the product name and the exact batch number. If you hear about a recall in the news, the batch number on your strip tells you whether yours is affected.

Check the seller

Most fake or unregistered medicine reaches people through sellers who are not pharmacies at all: social media pages, delivery-only "online pharmacies", or shops that sell medicine as a sideline. The DDA has publicly warned against buying from these and from mobile apps that have no licensed pharmacy behind them.

A licensed pharmacy in Nepal has to display its DDA registration and must have a pharmacist or a registered pharmacy assistant on site. You can ask to see the certificate. Our post on what to ask your pharmacist covers a few more things worth checking.

One honest limitation

None of these checks catch everything. A substandard tablet can look perfect. Nepal has roughly 20 drug inspectors for around 25,000 pharmacies, and the National Medicines Laboratory tests a few hundred products a year out of more than 25,000 brands, so the official net is thin. That is the main reason to buy from the same licensed pharmacy you trust, keep your receipts, and report anything odd.

If you think a medicine is fake

  1. Stop taking it and keep the pack, strip and receipt.
  2. Tell the pharmacy that sold it, and your doctor if you had any reaction.
  3. Report it to the Department of Drug Administration with the product name, batch number and where you bought it.

Reports from the public are one of the ways bad batches get noticed at all.

This article is general information, not medical advice. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist about your own medicines and health.