Gujarat Food and Drug Administration (FDCA) has detected two Jamnagar based retailers for marketing spurious products manufactured in the name of Gujarat based Mapro Pharmaceuticals India Ltd. The seized samples of Boric Acid IP which is a pharmacopoeial medicine used as disinfectant in hospitals has been sent to Vadodara based lab for further testing and analysis.

“Around 109 packets of boric acid IP of 400 gm each quantity were seized during the raid. The raid has revealed that the concerned manufacturer was producing boric acid and was pushing it in the market in the name of Mapro Pharmaceuticals based in Wadhawan city of Gujarat. Investigations have started to find out the main accused in the case which attracts stringent penalties for marketing spurious drugs as per the law of the land,” informed Dr H G Koshia, Gujarat FDCA Commissioner.

This is following Gujarat FDCA 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. However, 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 Gujarat FDCA Commissioner led team seized antibiotics worth over Rs.51 lakh in Ahmedabad alone. At the time of seizure on December 20, 2016, FIRs were filed against two Ahmedabad based wholesalers as a part of the crackdown.

Dr Koshia explained, “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.”

Dr Koshia added 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 to follow other vital leads in the case.

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.