Drugs Control Administration of Telangana has unearthed a spurious drug racket of fake antibiotics, hypertension and cholesterol medicines, analgesics in Hyderabad, officials said.
The raids were conducted at various locations in Hyderabad on Friday and spurious drugs Rs 26 lakh were seized.
Drugs Control Administration Director General V. B. Kamalasan Reddy said the raids were conducted by a special team on the basis of the intelligence gathered regarding entry of spurious drugs into Telangana from Kashipur in Uttarakhand.
On information regarding shipping of spurious drugs to Hyderabad through a courier shipping company Trackon Couriers Pvt. Ltd., the special team carried out raids at courier offices located at Dilsukhnagar and Uppal and found that two parcels each of weight 14.5 kgs and 13.34 kgs claimed to contain ‘Machine Parts’ were booked at Kashipur, Uttarakhand by Amar Pharmaceuticals, Ramnagar Road, Kashipur and the said parcels were delivered to Puvvada Lakshman, Hyderabad.
The DCA officials took assistance of the police authorities to trace the location of Puvvada Lakshman through his mobile number and caught him at a bar near Shiva Ganga Theatre, Dilsukhnagar.
The DCA officials raided the godown of Puvvada Lakshman at Sri Venkateswara Enterprises, Dwarakapuram, Dilsukhnagar and detected the stocks of spurious drugs received by him through courier from Kashipur.
Eight varieties of drugs were seized.
On interrogation, Puvvada Lakshman revealed the names of his accomplices -- Pokala Ramesh and Garapalli Purnachander of Saidabad, who are involved in the spurious drug racket and also revealed that he received spurious drugs from Nadeem of Uttarakhand.
Drugs Control Administration, Telangana alerted Drugs Control authorities of Uttarakhand.
The special team also carried out raids at residences of the accused.
Spurious/counterfeit drugs detected and seized by DCA officials include fake medicines which are falsely labeled under the names of reputed companies like Sun Pharma (Rosuvas 10 Tablets -- used in the treatment of High cholesterol), Glenmark Pharma (Telma H Tablets, Telma 40 Tablets -- used in the treatment of Hypertension), Aristo Pharmaceuticals (Monocef-O 200 Tablets – Antibiotic), Torrent Pharma (Chymoral Forte -- used to relieve pain and swelling).
DCA Officials also found two varieties of antibiotics -- MPOD-200 Tablets (Cefpodoxime Proxetil and Lactic Acid Bacillus Tablets) and MEXCLAV 625 Tablets (Amoxicillin and Potassium Clavulanate, Lactic Acid Bacillus Tablets) -- during the raid, which are labeled as manufactured by ‘Meg Lifesciences, Sirmour, Himachal Pradesh, which is found to be a fictitious/non-existent company.
DCA officers collected the samples for analysis.
Further investigation shall be carried out and action shall be taken as per the law against all the offenders, said Kamalasan Reddy.
He mentioned that spurious/counterfeit drugs are imitation products manufactured by antisocial elements concealing the true identity of the product and made to resemble another drug of a reputed company, especially some popular brand, to deceive the buyer and cash on the popularity of the original product. The product may not contain the active ingredients.
Spurious drugs are a major threat to public health. Spurious drugs place the patient’s health at grave risk. Spurious drugs not only fail to cure the disease but over time, create disastrous consequences for the patient.