Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration has cancelled all the 17 manufacturing licences issued by it for 7 companies in the state on the basis of fake Central approvals. The companies, which have secured manufacturing licenses in the State using the fake central approval letters, are Truecare Pharma, Reliance Formulations, Ronald Pharma, Bennet Pharma, Medoz Pharma, Brisco Laboratories and Depon Organics.

As reported by Pharmabiz yesterday, the Gujarat FDCA along with the office of the DCGI had unearthed a major fake new drug approval letter racket based in New Delhi. Subsequently, based on an FIR filed by the Gujarat FDCA and the complaints from DCGI the Gujarat Police has arrested the prime suspect, Mukesh Ahluvalia from Delhi and is currently zeroing in on other members.

Following the exposure of this fake new drug approval letter racket reported yesterday, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has already alerted all the state drug control administrations to be more vigilant while issuing manufacturing licenses and also to re-examine the doubtful license applications submitted in their offices. Central Drug Authority also learnt to have decided to hand over the case to Central Vigilance for further investigation.

The police personnel are also searching for one R Madhavan, who is suspected to be the key person in the racket. However, the involvement of the manufacturers also cannot be ruled out in the scandal, the sources added. Key suspect in the scam, Madhavan, is stated to be a former employee of Ranbaxy, the country's largest pharmaceutical company.

The complaint was filed after Gujarat FDCA Commissioner S P Adeshara learnt about 17 out of 18 new drug approvals supposedly issued by the DCGI to seven Gujarat based drug companies found to be forged. The Commissioner had decided to cross check the authenticity of these approvals after he became suspicious about the R&D capabilities of the companies who had received the approvals.