How Sun Pharma’s complaint helped authorities seize fake medicines worth Rs 2 cr

CDSCO’s Kolkata office got a complaint from Sun Pharma Laboratories Limited regarding the sale and storage of fakes of their products at a shop in Kolkata’s Bagri Market.

Central Drug Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) officials have nabbed two people for selling and storing counterfeit medicines worth Rs 2 crore.  The seized medicines were fakes of many of the country’s leading pharma companies, including Sun Pharma, Alkem, Cipla, Glenmark, GSK, Abbott, Novartis, Dr. Reddy’s, and Aristo. In fact, the seizure, billed as one of the biggest, was possible because of a Sun Pharma complaint and call records of the accused, officials said.

A Health Ministry official said CDSCO’s Kolkata office got a complaint from Sun Pharma Laboratories Limited on January 11 regarding the sale and storage of fakes of their products at a shop in Kolkata’s Bagri Market.

Big catch

One of the drug inspectors on the investigating team spoke to Moneycontrol on conditions of anonymity and said, “We conducted simultaneous raids on January 17 and 18 in Bagri Market and seized spurious/counterfeit drugs linked with top manufacturers. The quantity that we seized from one shop was worth Rs 10 lakhs,” he said.

The official said one person was arrested under the provisions of the Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940.

Also read: Drug makers get a year for GMP implementation, Mandaviya warns action on defaults

During the investigation, the call details records assessment led the CDSCO officials to an unlicensed warehouse in Kolkata’s Kolutala. “We recced the warehouse for several days and finally conducted raids on July 7 and 8 and to our surprise we found huge consignments of counterfeit medicines worth Rs 2 crore having labels of almost all of the leading brands in the country,” he added.

Another accused was arrested and sent to judicial custody for 10 days by Bankshall Court, Kolkata.

The official said the counterfeit medicines were mostly antibiotics, antacids, cardiac drugs, and pregnancy medicines.

“Counterfeit medicines having labels of Sun Pharmaceutical, Alkem, Cipla, Glenmark, GSK, Abbott, Novartis, Dr. Reddy’s, Aristo and of reputed brands like Augmentin, Pan-D, Pantocid DSR, Urimax-D, Clavam etc. were seized from unlicensed premises situated at 82, Moulana Shaukat Ali Street, Kolkata,” a Health Ministry official said.

Also read: Drug quality concerns take centre stage at pharma export council’s global meet

Joint operation

“We have conducted raids in Uttarakhand, Hyderabad, Sikkim and Bihar to nab the kingpin of fake medicine. Several places have been identified, where CDSCO officials will conduct raids,” he added.

In April this year, a team of drug inspectors from Odisha, with the assistance of Bihar drugs control officials, seized spurious drugs worth Rs 10 Lakhs in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur.

The official said the ongoing investigation has shown that fake medicine makers target cities like Varanasi, Patna, and Kolkata. “They try to smuggle the fake medicines through these cities to Odisha and then to different states in the country,” he added.

“We have written to the pharma companies, urging them to sensitize their marketing team about the fake medicine circulation. The medical representatives have to inform the department as soon as they find any abnormality in the labelling of medicine,” he added.

The drug regulators from the eastern zone of CDSCO were felicitated by the Union Health Minister, Mansukh Mandaviya.