Two Mumbai based companies have been booked under relevant sections of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 for supplying spurious products to Tata Memorial Hospital, the leading cancer research institution and hospital in the country.
Licenses of the companies have been canceled for violating the conditions of license under Section 17 C and 27 (A) (ii) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. A stop sale notice has also been issued on the products and instructions given to stop use of the products.
Cases of misbranding and duplication have been detected against Pharmadin Pvt Ltd for supplying Lysowash, the brand name for a sanitiser, as it was found to be of spurious quality on lab analysis done in an FDA lab. FDA officials also informed that another company Milan Cosmetics have also been booked under Section 17 C and punishable under 27 (A) (ii) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
Ever since the FDA intensified its drive two months ago against people stocking and selling drugs illegally, FDA had filed FIRs against unauthorised persons in South Mumbai for illegally selling and stocking medicines. According to an FDA official, action was taken against them for violating the conditions of licence under Section 18 of the D&C Act.
The arrested persons were also selling prescription drugs at exhorbitant prices in contravention to DPCO- 2013, Section 7 of Essential Commodities Act (EC Act) and D&C Act.
The state as of today has 18,000 wholesalers including those who export and import. Out of which, there are around 4,000 stockists who supply to the retail trade. FDA had intensified the crackdown considering the fact that until last year unfair practice of constraining the supply of medicines by a handful of drug dealers was rampant. FDA started the drive to inspect licences of 18,000 drug wholesalers in the state from July, 2014 onwards to detect malpractices related to violations of conditions of licence.
D&C Act empowers the drug inspector to examine any record, register, document or any other material object found and seize the same if he has reason to believe that it may furnish evidence of the commission of an offence punishable under the D&C Act or the Rules made thereunder.