Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) and Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have jointly detected an inter-state spurious drug racket. The prime accused of the racket has been booked for contravention of the provisions of Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 under Section 18 c and Section 27 for illegally stocking and supplying spurious drugs without a license and proper bill. The spurious product worth Rs. 11 lakh was seized from the Vapi-based wholesaler.

Based on the tip-off from Maharashtra FDA, the Gujarat FDCA team nabbed the accused and seized counterfeit drugs of calcium tablets bearing brand name Calcimax Forte tablets. This is the latest in the series of Gujarat FDCA crackdown on firms circulating spurious drugs under fictitious names

It has been observed that certain drug exporting firms have come under the scanner of drug regulators based on intelligence reports. Besides this, findings by other state drug controllers have also indicated there is a growing network of unscrupulous drug dealers which have clandestinely spread to states like Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.

In the backdrop of detection of spurious drugs recently through some exporting firms, Maharashtra FDA is also investigating the matter further to their correspondence with Gujarat FDCA on the inter-state spurious drug racket. Maharashtra FDA officials have termed spurious drugs as a major challenge and are in the process of devising an action plan to plug the loopholes in the retail supply chain.

Based on the investigations from respective state drug controllers where the menace of spurious drugs has spread, the clandestine activity also involved supplying the product through a Delhi based trader.

Based on the Gujarat FDCA findings, 50 drug retail stores in Ahmedabad were also supplied fake/spurious drugs by the drug dealer and two people were arrested by the FDA and police in this connection. Practicing doctors were also found prescribing spurious antibiotics kept in these retail drug stores.

Informed Gujarat FDCA Commissioner Dr H G Koshia, “After the seizure, the samples have been sent to Vadodara based drug testing lab to substantiate the findings for further action in the interest of patient safety.”

Dr Koshia also said that a racket of this magnitude has been detected for the first time in Gujarat and the state regulator is in constant touch with drug controllers of other states on the matter. Based on the latest intelligence reports, spurious drugs used to be supplied in a clandestine manner through certain areas in Gujarat and Maharashtra.