Kathmandu, May 3 -- In nine months of the current fiscal year, the Department of Drug Administration has tested 348 samples of medicines collected by its drug inspectors from across the country.

Of nearly 20,000 medicines, both registered and unregistered ones in the market, drug inspectors had collected for testing hundreds of samples of drugs suspected to be substandard.

However, the department, which is also the national regulatory body of the drug market, carried out tests on less than two percent of the total registered drugs in the country.

"Some samples of medicines collected by our drug inspectors some 13 months ago are yet to be tested," said Narayan Dhakal, director general of the department. "Some samples suspected to be sub...