The office of the Assistant Drugs Controller of Ernakulam in Kerala has
filed cases against two north Indian drug manufacturing companies and
one Bangalore based marketing company for violation of Schedule P of the
Drugs & Cosmetics Act.

The two north based companies are
Cadila Pharmaceuticals of Ahmedabad and Surya Pharmaceuticals of Solan
in Himachal Pradesh. Micro Labs of Bangalore, the marketing company for
Surya Pharmaceuticals is the other one. Cases pertaining to misbranding
drugs have been registered against these pharma companies by the Kerala
state drug authority.

Revi S Menon, the ADC of Ernakulam said the
companies have printed dates of expiry for their products surpassing
the actual period prescribed in the D &C Act. Cadila's amoxicillin
dry syrup, Mokan, and the same drug in the brand name of Micromox
manufactured by Surya Pharmaceuticals and marketed by Micro Labs have
printed a expiry period of 24 months on the label.

The ADC said
that as per schedule P of D&C Act, the maximum shelf life for dry
syrup is 18 months and the expiry date should have been printed
accordingly. But in the cases of both 'Mokan' and 'Micromox', the
companies have mentioned 24 months usage with an additional period of 6
months, going beyond the prescribed periods. Menon said the potency of
the dry syrup will usually lose after 18 months.

With information
received from Idukki district, the assistant drugs controller sent his
inspectors to the company offices in Ernakulam and conducted the raid,
and subsequently seized many batches of these drugs worth thousands of
rupees. Case of 'misbranded drugs' were registered against the
manufacturing and marketing companies, and filed it with the Judicial
First class Magistrate Court 1 and 2 at Ernakulam.

Jayan Philip,
the drug inspector at Ernakulam said the punishment for violation of
Schedule P is a jail term of three years and a fine of Rs. 25,000.