The Task Force officials of the Drug Control Administration has raided the administrative office of Krebs Biochemicals in Hyderabad and its Nellore unit in a bid to unearth the firm's alleged involvement in the Kolkata drugs scandal. The raid came close on the heels of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) quizzing officials of Krebs Biochemicals at its Nellore plant. The company has its headquarters at Banjara Hills in the city.

A senior official of the rank of assistant Director and other staff who visited each place collected purchase invoices, sales particulars and the drugs the firm manufactured during 2002-03. The officials will tally the records seized from the two places to know if the company had supplied the raw material for manufacturing the psychotropic substance Amphetamine Type Stimulant (ATS), which was seized in Kolkata last weekend.

Krebs Biochemicals, however, denied that it supplied the raw material for manufacturing the psychotropic substance though the company's labels and batch numbers of Ephedrine, a product of the firm, were found in an illegal drug manufacturing unit in Kolkata, busted by the Narcotics Control Bureau, last week.

Company's vice-president (production) D V Rao said that the material produced by them was used for manufacturing various formulations of anti-cough and anti-cold drugs, including syrups, tablets and capsules. The company was also expected to file 'returns' once in three months to the NCB officials providing details like the quantity of Ephedrine produced, antecedents of the buyers and the validity of their licences.

“We export 80 per cent of our product and the remaining is marketed in the country to various drug manufacturing companies,” Rao said.

The company officials suspect that one of their customers might have supplied the raw material to the drug manufacturing unit at Kolkata. Even the buyers have to file 'returns' with the NCB on the details of capsules, tablets and syrup manufactured out of the Ephedrine purchased by them. “Since the labels and batch numbers of our company were found by the NCB officials in the Kolkata lab, it is but natural for them to suspect us,” the company officials said.

The Rs.75 crore company was started in 1991 by T S Ravi, a businessman from Prakasam district. Krebs has been engaged in the production of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients through fermentation process. It produces 20 tonnes of Ephedrine every month in its plants located in Regadichiluka in Nellore and Kothapally near Anakapalle in Visakhapatnam district. Beside Krebs, there are five other companies engaged in the manufacture of Ephedrine in the country.