Illegal oxytocin injections worth ₹1.19L seized across UP

Food Safety and Drug Administration raids to continue, suppliers on radar

LUCKNOW: Oxytocin injections worth ₹1,19,300 were seized by the Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA) in a special drive conducted across the state’s 18 divisions between September 24 and September 26.

“After the order in March 2001, oxytocin is to be packed in blister packing but we got reports that it is being packed in vials, which indicated that a single vial was being used multiple times,” said UP drug licence and controlling authority AK Jain, explaining the reason for the raids.

A blister packing ensures the drug is used only once.

The districts where raids were conducted include Bahraich, Faizabad, Sant Kabir Nagar, Kanpur Dehat,, Jhansi, Gorakhpur, Muzaffarnagar, Moradabad, Mathura, Badaun, Bareilly, jaunpur, Barabanki, Balrampur, Kanpur Nagar, Firajabad, Shamli, Deoria and Baliya, Rae Bareilly, Sitapur, Lucknow, Azamgarh, Agra, Allahabad.

In all, oxytocin was recovered from eight different places (in all 37 districts) and samples from each seized lot have been sent for lab tests.

FIRs were registered in two cases while 95 raids were conducted in the different districts.

Action was taken against dealers for keeping oxytocin in vials instead of single use blister packing and also for not being able to produce documents related to purchase/sale of oxytocin.

“The raids will continue in the coming days,” said Jain. He said

that once the lab reports of the samples come, further action will be taken against the traders.

Apart from oxytocin, narcotic drugs worth ₹20,36,443 were also seized where the traders were not able to produce related documents.