There are `vested interests' in questioning the quality of Indian drugs, the commerce & industry ministry argued on Monday.

Defending the domestic pharma industry, the ministry said that vested interests were digging up isolated issue on reports about technical deficiencies on manufacturing practices.

It added that some of the forged drugs found in the international markets were desperate attempts of countries that were failing to compete with India in the pharma sector.

The ministry said in a statement, "The spurious drugs detected in the international markets, alleged to be exported from India, are desperate attempts by other countries getting affected by the strength of the Indian pharma industry."

The ministry's comments emerged as many countries are raising questions on the quality of drugs manufactured by Indian pharma companies. Indian companies started suffering loss in trust in international markets after Ranbaxy Laboratories pleaded guilty to charges of manufacturing and distributing poor quality drugs on the United States.

Last month, Ranbaxy agreed to settle the criminal and civil charges by paying a hefty fine of $500 million to the U. S. authorities.

Indian pharma industry suffered another blow after the U. S. FDA put a question mark on the quality of drugs manufactured by Wockhardt's Aurangabad facility, and banned it from exporting the drugs to the U. S.