The Chief Judicial Magistrate Court at Kottayam in Kerala has sentenced M P Gangadharan, a former state minister and managing director of Ganson India Pharmaceuticals based at Malappuram district for six months of simple imprisonment for supplying not-of-standard quality drugs to government medical stores.

Besides the jail term, the punishment involves a fine of Rs 5000 or another a period of 3 months of stay in jail. The case regarding this was filed in 1997 by the then drug inspector of Kottayam.

The court also sentenced two officials of the company, manufacturing chemist K P Varghese and analytical chemist Jacob T Mathew with equal punishment. The charge against the company was that it had manufactured and distributed sub standard Salbutamol tablets used to treat asthma patients, to the government owned medical stores.

C K Mohandas, the assistant drug controller of Eranakulam, who filed the case in 1997, told Pharmabiz that the samples seized from the district medical store in Kottayam were of not of standard quality, consequently he filed a case with the CJM court at Kottayam.

According to sources the company had challenged the regulatory authority’s report with some test reports on the same drug from various laboratories influencing government to withdraw the case. At last the Kerala High Court had to interfere for moving the case.