CHENNAI: A case of incomplete abortion at a Primary Health Centre in Karur district has led the Drug Control Administration (DCA) department of the state to intensify its crackdown on the illegal trade of abortion pills, which cannot be sold without a prescription from doctors.
The officials have filed a complaint with the police against an individual from Namakkal district who allegedly purchased over 6,000 medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) kits online from a Bengaluru-based manufacturer of the drugs, and sold them illegally to persons in at least two districts in the state.
S Gurubharathi, deputy director of Drugs Control Cum Controlling Authority cum Licensing Authority, told TNIE it was found during investigation that a huge quantity of a particular brand of MTP kits, which contain Mifepristone and Misoprostol tablets, was procured by a man named Dharnidharan Selvam, who was not a licensed dealer.
The MTP kits should be bought only with a prescription and should be used only under the supervision of a doctor in a medical facility, as specified under the MTP Act and its rules. Selvam purchased the drugs using the wholesale licence of another person over several months. The owner of the licence has also filed a police complaint against him, Gurubharathi added.
He allegedly sold them to individuals in Theni and Salem districts. The drug inspectors of Namakkal district, who conducted the investigation, found 6,720 MTP kits had been illegally sold in this way. Gurubharathi said the officials were alerted after they got a call from a PHC in Karur on September 12 that a woman with complications due to incomplete abortion had come to the centre. On enquiry, she told the staff that she had purchased the drug and took it without doctor’s supervision.
The deputy director said further investigation will reveal how long the individual had been selling the drugs, how individuals approached him, whether they were sold to any illegal abortion centres.
DCA officials said they had written to the union health ministry a few months ago to ban online sale of prescription drugs as offenders were sourcing it online from other states.