In its ongoing crackdown on circulation of spurious drugs in the state, the Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) has detected Ahmedabad-based WHO-GMP firm supplying spurious drugs to government hospitals in Gujarat. The drugs supplied were antibiotics and it was observed that the drug was labeled as ampicillin but actually contained amoxicillin.

Said a senior Gujarat FDCA official, “The drugs used to be supplied through a tendering process and were mislabeled with the sole intention to escape the price control as per the government tender requirements. Besides this, amoxicillin is cheaper than ampillicin.”  

Ampicillin is an antibiotic used to prevent and treat a number of bacterial infections, such as respiratory tract infections, urinary tract infections, meningitis, salmonellosis, and endocarditis. Amoxicillin is an antibiotic useful for the treatment of a number of bacterial infections. It is the first line treatment for middle ear infections. It may also be used for strep throat, pneumonia, skin infections and urinary tract infections among others.

Meanwhile, Gujarat FDCA recently made a crack down on two Ahmedabad-based wholesalers SR Enterprises and Shraddha Healthcare for marketing spurious drugs as a part of huge inter-state drug racket. High Court of Gujarat recently rejected the bail plea of the accused.

The racket had spread its network spanning Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra which got detected when the state regulators seized antibiotics worth over Rs 51 lakh in Ahmedabad alone. At the time of seizure on December 20, FIRs were filed against two Ahmedabad based wholesalers as a part of the crackdown led by Commissioner FDCA Dr H G Koshia.

The accused have been arrested and are behind bars and the court has outrightly rejected their bail plea. Baroda based drug testing lab has come out with results that antibiotics were grossly spurious with no active ingredients.

Based on a tip-off that these drugs have been supplied in a clandestine manner to Ahmedabad and other areas, Gujarat FDCA officials laid a trap and detected 8 products giving negative results through hand held near infra-red machine and raman spectroscopy machine. The seized products claimed to be antibiotics like cefixime, azithromycin and ofloxacin were priced at over Rs.200 for each strip of 10 tablets.