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Bhubaneswar: There has been rampant circulation of spurious drugs in Odisha.
An exclusive report by the OTV, the premiere news channel of the state, says about 69 spurious drugs, starting from antibiotics to cold and fever, are in circulation in the state at present.
Preliminary investigation has revealed that the network of spurious drugs supplied by the companies stretches from Himachal Pradesh to Rajasthan while these drugs are presently sold in several medicine outlets in seven districts of Odisha.
The incident has come to the fore during a recent raid on 11 medicine outlets in Cuttack by the Directorate, Drugs Controller.
“We have seized spurious drugs from four medicine outlets in Cuttack and taken samples of 11 spurious drugs to test their properties. Apart from these, we have also seized other related documents like purchase bill, sales bill, waybill, mode of payment, transport receipt,” Ashok Kumar Patra, Assistant Drugs Controller (Industry), told OTV.
He also informed that besides Odisha, the spurious drugs, prepared by Abhaya Health Care Ltd, have also been supplied to 12 states including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.
Patra said the circulation of spurious drugs was known by the Directorate, Drugs Controller after testing T-Citra drug used against indigestion.
“Subsequently we came to know that the company was preparing spurious drugs in the name of some of the well-known brand anti-biotic drugs like Azithromycin, Levocetirizine, Orirab-DSR, Obiclav-625, Flemiclav-625 and Topclav-625”, he pointed out.
As informed by Hrusikesh Mohapatra, Drugs Controller, the company has supplied spurious drugs to several medicine outlets in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Puri, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur and Jajpur districts.
“While some spurious drugs have been seized, instructions have been given to all district Drugs Inspectors to immediately seize spurious drugs supplied by the Abhaya Health Care”, he said.
Mohapatra also informed that though the Abhaya Health Care Ltd has mentioned its headquarters at Himachal Pradesh, it was found that there was no company in its name in this state.
“However, during investigation, it was found that two companies— Ascent Pharma and Ocean Organics— in Jaipur were supplying spurious medicines. Later, we raided these companies in association with our Jaipur counterparts”, he added.
He said if the name of a person or the manufacturer written on the label of a medicine, is found fictitious, then it would be considered as a spurious drug.
“We have noticed this during our investigation and asked the medicine retailers to take back the medicines from the patients they have sold and return them the money they have paid for the drug”, Mohapatra said.
