AGRA: The drug administration (DA) made one of its biggest seizures ever of suspected expired and fake antibiotic and anti-allergic drugs on Friday, from a city-based pharmacy and its godown.
According to DA officials, two raids led by drug inspectors Raj Kumar Sharma and Anil Anand, were conducted simultaneously at the pharmacy in Balkeshwar, under New Agra police station, and a house in Vijaynagar Ratanpura, under Hariparvat police station.
“We’ve seized over Rs 25 lakh worth allopathic drugs — antibiotics, anti-allergic, multivitamin, calcium and others, which we suspect are fake or expired, from Tennis pharmacy in Balkeshwar, owned by a Govind Prasad Agrawal, who failed to produce purchase bills for the drugs, nor did he have license to operate the pharmacy. We’ve collected samples and sent them for tests to a Lucknow-based government laboratory,” said Raj Kumar Sharma.
He added, “We also conducted a raid at a house in Vijaynagar Ratanpura and found 3,100 used vials of the antibiotic Amikacin and anti-allergic Chlorpheniramine in the kitchen. The vials were in a bucket submerged in chemicals to remove their date of manufacturing, to be repackaged with fake medicine and sold in remote villages of Agra and neighbouring districts.”
“During probe, we found the house belongs to a man named Prem, who is a salesman at Tennis pharmacy. Since the raid, the accused are absconding,” he further added.
Earlier in June, a DA team had recovered over 10,000 Amikacin vials repackaged with fake drugs, worth Rs 7 lakh. The accompanying cops from Nibohra police station arrested four people, including a woman. Later, the seized drugs were traced to Avita Vihar of Kamla Nagar in Balkeshwar.
Before that in February, a local drug wholesaler was arrested for running a fake manufacturing unit in his house in Deeksha Shree Bankey Bihari Dham, Sikandra. The fake medicines were packed in blister packs of original medicines belonging to a known pharmaceutical company and sold in Agra and neighbouring districts. Fake drugs worth Rs 3.5 lakh were seized.
