Pharmexcil suspends membership of Safe Formulations over alleged Tramadol smuggling

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Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil), an arm of the Union Ministry of Commerce, has suspended the membership of Guntur-based drug maker, Safe Formulations, which was allegedly found to be part of the Tramadol smuggling syndicate by the Customs department.

The firm had told the government body that it will reply by April 28 but didn't respond hence its membership has been suspended.

Tramadol is a banned psychotropic substance in India since April 2018.

The export body's action came after the Andhra Pradesh-based pharma company failed to provide the details of the licensees to whom they supplied the Tramadol tablets along with the importers' names and contact.

The founders of Safe Formulations were further asked to provide the manufacturing License copies and product permissions, which they didn't give, resulting in the suspension of the Registration cum Membership Certificate (RCMC) suspension.

Uday Bhaskar, Director General, Pharmexcil, on April 25, had written to Govinda Reddy Balineni Director of Andhra bases Safe Formulations after the Central Intelligence Unit of the Mumbai Customs department seized around a million Tramadol tablets worth approximately Rs. 21 crore.

According to the missive by Bhaskar, the investigation revealed that Safe Formulations had provided the said goods to First Wealth Solutions.

"It is also noted that the Customs officials under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act have arrested Mr.Sangala Sridhar Reddy, Director of M/s Safe Formulations Pvt Ltd, a medicine manufacturing company based in Andhra Pradesh for allegedly supplying Tramadol to two other firms which would allegedly smuggle them further to several countries including Sudan, via air cargo," the Pharmexcil DG said in the letter.

Bhaskar in his letter further said that the probe by federal agencies revealed that Safe Formulations had provided 3.31 crore strips or 15,745 kg tablets (not clear whether they were all Tramadol) to First Wealth Solutions in the past.

"The consignment was allegedly misdeclared as Tamol-X-225, a calcium carbonate tablet, has brought a bad reputation to the Indian pharma industry and is also likely to have an impact on the trust of international agencies on Indian pharma exports," he said.