BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday ordered a Crime Branch probe into the alleged spurious Covid-19 drug trade in the State.Official sources said that the Chief Minister issued the direction after the Health and Family Welfare department confirmed that Favipiravir tablets recovered from two wholesale medicine stores in Cuttack were fake. The fake medicines were seized before the stock was released in the open market in Odisha, State Drug Controller AS Das had said.
Earlier on Saturday, the State government had asked the Drugs Controller to conduct a thorough probe into the matter and submit a report. Besides, teams comprising Health department officials and police have already conducted raids in various places in 14 districts and seized medicines used for treatment of Covid-19 patients. Seizures of allegedly fake medicines were made at Balangir, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Rourkela, Kalahandi and Bhubaneswar, following the recovery of the drugs from Cuttack on June 10.
However, the Odisha government is yet to issue terms of reference of the Crime Branch probe so far. Sources said that it will be issued soon.The Drugs Control officials during a raid on a medicine wholesale godown at Kanika Chowk in Tulasipur area in Cuttack city on June 11 had seized several cartons of counterfeit medicines estimated at `70 lakh including 17,000 fake Favipiravir tablets. The next day during a raid on a wholesale counter in Mangalabag area of the city spurious drugs were also seized.
Official sources said that the State government had received a tip-off from the Food and Drug Administration, Maharashtra that spurious Favipiravir tablets (Favimax-400), allegedly manufactured by one Himachal Pradesh-based firm had allegedly been purchased by a Cuttack-based pharmaceutical wholesaler.