Medicines worth Rs 4 lakh seized from courier office

In its ongoing drive to curb unauthorised sale of medicines, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Mumbai on Friday busted a racket that was stocking and selling allopathy and homeopathy medicines to various doctors and pharmacies in the city.

During a raid at a Vikhroli-based courier office, the FDA found that it was illegally dealing in the medicines.

“The retailer sourced large quantities of medicines from a distributor and supplied the medicine illegally to pharmacies. They violated the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and stern action will be taken against them,” FDA Commissioner Pallavi Darade said.

She said they will also investigate whether they were selling the medicines to fake or genuine doctors. “An investigation is underway and we will find out how many people are involved in this racket and from where they are buying stock in bulk quantities.”

The raid was conducted under the guidance of Assistant Commissioner More and his team with the help of Joint Commissioner (JC) Yogesh Khadtare.

“On the basis of information received by the JC, the raid was conducted. The medicines were are delivered to doctors in courier boxes without a bill under their modus operandi,” a senior official of FDA said.

He further said stock of various drugs were found in bulk which was packed in gunny bags. “The business was carried under the shield of courier service. They used to buy stocks and sell them without a bill to the doctors which is illegal and the supplier is from Ghatkopar area,” said Yogesh Khadtare, Joint Commissioner, Greater Bombay.

Khadtare said they have seized medicines worth Rs 4 lakhs and the samples have been sent for further analysis to the drug testing lab.

In another development, the FDA on Friday issued a release recalling the brand Oxymac, which was sold to 30 retailers in the state. The FDA release states that the medicine is inferior quality and Thane-based Shree Jain Pharmaceuticals procured 1,000 such injections and sold them to 30 retailers, running the risk of being sold for human use. It procured the stock from United Pharma in Kamothe, which had procured 52,500 units from Uttar Pradesh, the release added.

The FDA has now written to the drug controllers of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab from where the stock was supplied.

In its investigations, FDA has revealed that Punjabbased Macin Remedies India Pvt Ltd manufactured the ampoules, or injections, and supplied it to Uttar Pradeshbased distributor called Romax Pharma.

“We suspect the medicine is of inferior quality. Laboratory testing of the medicine is underway,” a drug inspector said.