CUTTACK: Cracking down on the manufacturing and sale of fake medicines, a five-member team from the Directorate of Drugs Control, Odisha has been carrying out raids on multiple locations in Cuttack city since Tuesday night.
The team headed by an additional drug controller, Cuttack Circle-1 Dharmadev Puhan raided Puja Enterprises and VR Drug Agencies, drug wholesale points in Manikghos Bazaar and inspected the stock of two particular medicines which were manufactured and sold by a fake pharmaceutical company in the name of Gelmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
“Sale of suspected spurious drug- Telma AM and Telma-40 meant for treating high blood pressure and heart disease was detected in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday evening which prompted us to carry out raids on wholesale points in Cuttack’s Manikghos Bazaar. We have collected five samples of the two drugs and seized the huge stock of the tablets,” said Puhan.
During verification, it came to fore that VR Enterprisers had availed the stock from Bengaluru and Puja Enterprises got it from Patna in Bihar. While one sample has been sent to Gelmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd for its remark and clarification, the rest have been sent to State Drugs Testing Laboratory for examination.
If the test report confirms the medicines are spurious, the entire stock will be seized and necessary legal action initiated, said Puhan adding the investigation is on to establish the fake company which is manufacturing and selling the medicines in the name of Glenmark.
The wholesale druggists who had availed stock of the two suspected spurious medicines worth Rs 50 lakh on May 22, 2022, were found to have supplied a majority to states like Delhi, West Bengal and Gujarat.
“This being a sensitive issue, we are trying our best to ensure the products do not reach the patients. We have also recalled and frozen huge quantities of the two drugs from around 100 retail medicine shops in Cuttack. While Telma AM and Telma-40 tablets worth `30 lakh have so far been frozen, the test report is awaited for further course of action,” said Puhan.