The Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) has prosecuted a herbal drug manufacturer based in Ahmedabad for supplying spurious herbal drugs to the US market in the name of dietary supplements.
Based on the crackdown, it seized spurious herbal drugs worth Rs.8 lakh. The fake medicines used to be mixed with allopathic medicines to treat chronic ailments like diabetes, cholesterol, arthritis, allergies and impotence.
The fake drugs which were seized from a godown in Surat was manufactured by Amrutam Life Care under the brand name Diexi meant for diabetes, Allexi for Allegies, Zoom-Zooma-Zoom for sexual health, choelxi for cholesterol and Arexi for arthritis.
Says Gujarat FDA Commissioner Dr H G Koshia, “Gujarat FDCA tested the samples at its Vadodara testing lab and found that the drugs which claimed to be health supplements were actually mixed with allopathic drugs like metformin, diclofenac, paracetamol, cetrizine among others.”
“We then sent the report to the US FDA for further follow up and actions to be taken on the same. The matter had however come to light when US FDA had sent cyber notice to the Gujarat based manufacturer for supplying spurious herbal drugs to the US market. As of now, we have suspended the license of the manufacturer and have launched prosecution against him,” he added.
Dr. Koshia also said that a racket of this nature was detected a few months ago in March this year when Gujarat FDCA and Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mutually detected an inter-state spurious drug racket.
The prime accused of the racket was booked for contravening the provisions of section 18 c and section 27 of drugs and cosmetics act, 1940 for illegal stocking and selling spurious medications without a license and purchase bill.
Based on the tip-off from Maharashtra FDA, the Gujarat FDCA team nabbed the accused and seized spurious drugs of calcium tablets bearing brand name Calcimax Forte tablets. The spurious item worth Rs.11 lakh was seized from the Vapi-based distributor.
This was the most recent crackdown of Gujarat FDCA on firms circulating spurious medications under fictitious names. Spurious drugs used to be circulated in a clandestine manner in specific areas of Gujarat and Maharashtra based on the intelligence reports.