The Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) has raided a clinic in Bhavnagar for selling expired medicines and has seized drugs worth more than Rs 45 lakh last week.

The FDCA has conducted a raid in Shriji Clinic, in Bhavnagar city, and has booked Dr Hemal Mehta, owner of the clinic, for selling expired products, according to top sources from the administration. A majority of the products seized have already passed their expiry date, while the rest of them are almost nearing the expiry date. The products were in a wide variety in various therapeutic segments including antibiotic injectables.

Out of the total seizure, Rs 19 lakh worth of products were sildenafil tablets, branded as Partnership, which the authority found that the entire stock were date expired. Stocks of thinner and cotton plug, used to erase the expiry dates from the labels were also seized during the raid. The samples were collected and sent for further testing in the state drug testing laboratory, Baroda.

“We have conducted the raid based on some tips we received and further investigation is on,” said H G Koshia, commissioner, FDCA. “We were already on high alert due to the recent incidents exposing sales of expired medicines in the market in South India,” he added.

The administration suspects that the medical practitioner was purchasing medicines nearing the expiry date from some of the medical representatives and distributors in cheap price to administer on the patients visiting the clinic.

Raids will be conducted on the residence of Dr Mehta and a First Information Report is under preparation, said Koshia. Further investigations will be conducted to track the supplier or the stockist involved, in the coming days, he added.

As reported earlier, huge sales of expired medicines in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, is under investigation of CB CID of Tamil Nadu state police.