CUTTACK: A special squad of Drug Controller of Odisha seized huge quantity of fake Covid-19 drug Favipiravir during a raid on a wholesale medicine store at Kanika Chowk in the city on Thursday.
Acting on an intelligence input from Haryana, the special squad raided the medicine store and seized 170 boxes containing around 17,000 fake Favipiravir tablets.
The drug is prescribed for treatment of Covid-19 patients. The fake medicines were seized before the stock was released in the open market in Odisha, informed State Drug Controller, Annada Sankar Das.
“During verification, it was found that the medicine wholesaler had sent 4,060 strips of the fake Favipiravir to Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh in May. Hence, we have intimated the matter to Drug Controller of Madhya Pradesh and alerted them about supply of the fake drug to a medicine store in Gwalior,” said Das.
The seized fake Favipiravir tablets were procured from Goutam Buddha Nagar in Uttar Pradesh.
Though the printed information on the medicine strips suggested the drug was manufactured at Solan in Himachal Pradesh, during verification it was found that there is no such medicine manufacturing company there.
Das said samples from the seized stock have been collected and will be sent for examination to a laboratory.
“If we fail to test the samples at our laboratory, they will sent to the Central Drug Laboratory in Kolkata,” he said, adding necessary action would be initiated against the accused after the sample test report is received.