BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government has sought support from its Bihar counterpart to pin down the manufacturers of fake drugs - Telma 40 and Telma AM - which were seized from different parts of the State recently.
After request from the State drugs control administration yielded no response, Principal Secretary of Health and Family Welfare department Nikunja Dhal wrote to Bihar’s Additional Chief Secretary of Health Pratyaya Amrit for details of the drugs, purportedly procured from the state.
Earlier, Drugs control administration of Karnataka and Bihar were asked to submit their feedback on the batch numbers of both the medicines which were found to be spurious during laboratory tests. Two Cuttack-based pharmaceutical distributors arrested for supplying the medicines confessed to have procured them from Bengaluru and Bihar.
As the seized drugs were used for blood pressure control and chronic cardiovascular diseases, Dhal requested Amrit to treat it with utmost urgency and ask the Drugs Controller of Bihar to submit reply so that investigation can be expedited.
The State government has also decided to depute a two-member team accompanied by police officers to Bihar for further investigation into the matter. Assistant Drugs Controllers Tushar Ranjan Panigrahi and Dharmadev Puhan will proceed to Bihar to obtain details of the firms from Bihar administration. Dhal urged his counterpart to extend cooperation to the team.
The two drugs were being sold under the brand name of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd,which confirmed it did not manufacture the seized batch of the drugs. Even as over a week has passed since huge consignments of the fake drugs were seized from the State, the Health Administration has no clue about the suppliers as the GST numbers on the consignments were also found to be fake.
Drugs Controller Subodh Nayak said the matter is being investigated by police. The investigating agency is aware about the fake GST numbers and efforts are on to track the routes through which the numbers passed during transition. The focus is on finding out the manufacturers, he added.