Last Updated on January 21, 2024 by The Health Master
The Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) has made a major crackdown on illegal sale of spurious C-19 drug favipiravir and remdesivir injections with its network in Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh.
All the state licensing authorities (SLAs) have already been given alerts to keep a strict vigil on the illegal sale of such spurious drugs. The respective SLAs have also appealed to the public to purchase the C-19 drugs from the licensed drug shop with a purchase bill.
Several raids were made by the Gujarat FDCA in Surat and Ahmedabad and it was revealed that the offenders used to mislabel the drug as remdesivir and favipiravir brands of known manufacturing and marketing companies.
“An inter-state nexus of people who were either working as hospital staff or working in pharma companies are involved with its network in Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh has been detected and offenders have been charged under different sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Drugs Act. We are still trying to investigate the magnitude of the nexus and the money involved as spurious favipiravir was also sold in Maharashtra,” explained Gujarat FDCA Commissioner Dr HG Koshia.
Meanwhile, Gujarat FDCA is also in touch with the drug control department of Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra to get more intelligence inputs on the matter.
Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also recently seized stock of spurious drugs worth of around Rs 1.54 crore of Favimax 400 and 200 (favipiravir tablets) and hydroxychloroquine tablets manufactured by Max Relief Healthcare, Solan, Himachal Pradesh based on a tip-off. Based on the tip-off, the intelligence branch of Maharashtra FDA raided three drug dealers from Mumbai namely Shivsustri Surgimed Meditab Worldwide and Nirav Tradelink.
Upon further inquiries with the Drugs Controller Himachal Pradesh, it was revealed that the manufacturing company Max Relief Healthcare, Solan, Himachal Pradesh is not in existence. It was also revealed that Max Relief Healthcare, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, which sells drugs to wholesalers in the state, does not have a valid license to sell drugs.
The owner of Max Relief Healthcare, appeared for the inquiry but could not provide any document regarding the production and sale of these drugs. Also, he could not provide information about drug production and sales licenses. At first glance, the photocopy of the license submitted by Mukherjee was found to be a forged document.
The Drug Inspectors (DIs) have registered a case against the offenders under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Drugs and Cosmetics (D&C) Act, 1940 in Samata Nagar, Kandivali (East), Mumbai and Goregaon (East), Mumbai police stations.
The Maharashtra FDA Commissioner has also issued an advisory to the public to report circulation of any suspicious drug to the toll free number 1800222365.
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