Drugs control body seizes illegal cosmetics

ILLEGAL GOODS WORTH ~4 CRORE WERE SEIZED FROM EIGHT CITIES AND INCLUDED PRODUCTS DERIVED FROM HUMAN STEM CELL, PROMISING TO ENHANCE BEAUTY AND CURE HAIR LOSS

NEW DELHI: A team of 150 officials of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) raided 30 locations in eight cities over the course of two days, making seizures of cosmetic items and registering FIRS against people involved in import and manufacture of these “illegal” products.

In the raids, conducted on October 5 and 6, illegal goods worth ~4 crore were seized, an official said.

“New generation of cosmetics like stem cell based cosmetics, serums, skin whitening creams, Glutathione injections, hyaluronic acid filler injections etc are being marketed without evaluating their safety and quality,” a statement issued by the drug controller said.

CDSCO is the regulatory authority under the Union health ministry’s directorate general of health services.

Its intelligence wing had carried out studies on the “latest trends in the marketing of cosmetics” to find that in the absence of licenses being mandatory for cosmetics, their sales and distribution system has evolved over time and, in the process, also become difficult to track as much of their presence is online.

“The advent of e-marketing has made things easy. The intelligence cell, after tracking various sources online and offline, identified various distributors of illegal imports and manufacturers of spurious and unlicensed cosmetics manufacturers.

“Several of the cosmetics contained ingredients which are not permitted for use on humans,” the statement said.

A senior health ministry official said the products that have been seized are derived from human stem cell and are sold as beauty enhancing products and/ or as solution for hair loss.