Acting on the instructions of Director of Tamil Nadu Drugs Control Administration, a team of drug of inspectors have raided a quack doctor’s clinic attached with an unlicensed pharmacy and confiscated medicines worth Rs 50,000.

The department has registered a case against the fake doctor-cum-pharmacist under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.

The quack doctor, a resident of Sankarankoil in Tirunelveli district, was running a pharmacy without valid licence after putting up a board on a thatched shed in front of his house, said M Bhaskaran, the director of Drugs Control Administration. The bogus doctor has written in the board that he is a General Physician in Allopathy ostensibly intended to attract consumers of medicines, the director told Pharmabiz.

The quack, marked his name in the board as ‘Dr B Karthikeyan MD’ is neither a doctor nor a pharmacist, but has been practising and dispensing allopathic medicines for the last several years.

When asked whether the inspecting team has informed the police about the incident, Bhaskaran said only departmental action was taken for the time being. He said the seized items were produced before the Judicial Magistrate Court in Sankarankoil.

In other raids conducted in various parts of the state last week, the regulatory agency has closed down two blood banks and one Pharmacy shop. In Triplicane in Chennai, the department has cancelled the license of Venkiteswara Medicals for misusing psychotropic drugs.

Two blood banks in Thanjavur, Lekshmi Narayana Blood Bank and Amman Blood Bank have been asked to stop collection for not complying norms of Drugs & Cosmetics Act. With this the total number of blood banks closed in the state this year has gone up to five.

Lions Blood Bank and Research Centre at Tambaram near Chennai, Sree Aurobindo Blood Bank and Components Research Centre at Kilpauk in Chennai and Lions Legend Blood Bank at Coimbatore had given stop collection orders last month by the department, the director said.