The drug administration in Haryana has launched an intensive drive across the state against spurious drugs, including those manufactured outside and being sold there. The administration has recently seized counterfeit quinolone antibiotic tablets worth Rs 20 lakh from a unit in Gurgaon.

"We are carrying out a drive to ascertain the presence of spurious drugs in the State and to ensure quality of drugs as there have been some complaints about fake drugs. The drive will take two to three months and cover the entire State by picking up random samples by the officials,'' State drug controller Ram Mohan Sharma told Pharmabiz.

It is learnt that as many as six companies are under the scanner of the administration and samples were being collected regularly. The official however did not reveal the names of these companies at this stage of drive. Two manufacturing units at Sonepet were also raided and samples had been sent for tests, sources said.

Following the complaints and after keeping a close tab for sometime, the authorities picked up samples of six tablets from Gurgaon-based Chem Pharma early this month. Out of these, ciprofloxacin tablets failed the tests, prompting the officials to raid the unit at Udyog Vihar -II and seize two lakh tablets worth Rs 20 lakh.

"A case has been registered in the court against the unit under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act,'' Sharma added. The tests on samples of ciprofloxacin found that the absence of some salts from the antibiotic made them of no use to the patients.

Even as the DCGI office is gearing up to launch an official survey to ascertain the exact quantum of spurious drugs in the markets amid conflicting reports about the market-size of fake drugs, the police had recently seized seven lakh pain-relieving counterfeit tablets from a unit based in Solan of Himachal Pradesh, upon a complaint from a leading manufacturer.

The counterfeit tablets of Nicholas Piramal's popular drug Saridon were seized from Varsha Pharmaceuticals in Solan and Raj Pharma in Hyderabad, both owned by the same person. Piramal Healthcare had engaged an agency to look into the complaint of manufacturing look-alike drug in the name of ` Siridan' to fake Saridon. Aided by the agency, the police raided both the premises recently and busted the racket.