After the racket of selling expired drugs was exposed in Tamil Nadu recently making headlines, the same illegal activity has been traced to more places, especially in the North-East region of the country.

Reports of expired medicines being sold in the markets have been received from the States of Mizoram, Assam and Tripura. Sources in the health ministry said the Centre has alerted all States against illegal activities and the concerned State drug control authorities had been instructed to take stern action in tracing the rackets and initiating legal measures.

Some time back, the sale of expired drugs by altering labels had been unearthed by the Directorate of Drugs Control in Tamil Nadu. After preliminary investigation by the State Drugs Control Administration, the case has been transferred to the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation as per the directions of the State Government. According to the report filed with the Centre, as many as 15 shops were raided in connection with the case. One dealer was found indulging in alteration of batch numbers, manufacturing data, the expiry date of the product and supplying them for sale. So far 24 people have been arrested.

In Mizoram, three case of selling of expired drugs have been detected. The licenses of the sale premises have been suspended in all the cases and further investigations were going on, sources said. Ciprofloxacin manufactured by Parenteral Drugs, Indore, Neurobion Forte Injection by Merck and Pactogest from Pact India Pvt Ltd, Gurgaon were found to be tampered and sold after the expiry of the date, sources said.

In Tripura also, three cases were found. Prativa Medical Hall at Agartala was found to be selling some expired products and its license has been suspended. Show cause notices have been issued to Joy Narayan Medical Hall at Udaipur of South Tripura, and New Das Medical hall of Dhalai in two other cases. One case has been reported from Assam also. Show cause notice were served to New Drug House in Goalpara district after it was found to be selling some expired drugs, sources said.