Following the recent seizure of huge quantity of expired and spurious drugs through a series of joint raids conducted in several parts of Tamil Nadu by the officials of the drugs control and police, chief minister M Karunanidhi has instructed the authorities to initiate stern action against the dealers and sellers of fake drugs.

In a high level meeting with police and health department officials, the chief minister emphasized the need for a multi-state committee to unearth the network of manufacturers and traders of spurious drugs that are reportedly spreading across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Pondicherry.

After attending the meeting, director of Drugs Control Department, M Bhaskaran told Pharmabiz that the high level meeting, chaired by chief minister, has stressed the need to have an inter-state inspection team to uncover the spurious drugs racket in the state.

Last week, in a raid conducted in the city by a group of top drug control officials, expired drugs worth lakhs of rupees were seized from the premises of certain stockists and in connection with that, the police arrested seven persons working in a pharma dealer company. According to sources, the police interrogation revealed that people working in the company were collecting discarded packs of medicines from a dump yard located in the suburb of the city and were re-labelling them for further sale. This shocking incident has forced Karunanidhi to order for immediate action against the culprits.

When asked whether any retail pharmacy in the state is working without a qualified pharmacist, the director said all the 42000 licensed pharmacies in Tamil Nadu are having qualified pharmacists. He said that the raid will continue and special teams are aggressively engaged in inspection work. On Monday, he said 280 bottles of spurious cough syrups were seized in a raid conducted in Coimbatore.

In the wake of present situation, the Corporation authorities have also formed a special committee of their health officials to monitor the movement of fake drugs in the city, under public health act.

Meanwhile, the directors of Meena Health Care Pvt Ltd, from whose premises the authorities have allegedly seized huge quantities of fake drugs last week, have sought anticipatory bail from the High Court of Madras, but the court had rejected their application.