Cracking a whip on the violators of Drugs and Cosmetic Act and Pharmacy Act in the state, the Telangana State Drug Control Administration (TSDCA) has recovered drugs meant to be supplied to government hospitals and physician samples stored illegally at pharmacy stores.

According to officials, the medicines meant for free distribution in government hospitals in Telangana have ended up in the hands of private persons, who are stockpiling them in the hope of selling the same on the sly.

Upon a tip-off, the teams of the Drug Control Administration (DCA) of Telangana conducted inspections at a few private premises in Hyderabad, a large cache of anti-rabies vaccines meant to be supplied through government hospitals in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were found illegally stashed. The inspecting teams also found large stockpile of drugs that were ‘Physicians Samples’ only.
 
Akun Sabharwal, director of TSDCA said, “Medicines supplied to government hospitals, and public health centres are to be given to patients by government doctors, selling or stockpiling of such medicines by private persons is illegal and against the law. We have seized the stocks worth Rs. 24 lakhs from warehouses managed by private druggists and booked eight cases under Sec 18 (a) r/w Rule 65 (18) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.”

In Hyderabad district alone the DCA officials seized 285 different kinds of medicine worth Rs. 4.16 lakh from the chemists and druggists for violating the norms. “The seized drugs were a mix of government drugs and physicians samples. Our teams have already started the process of taking legal action,” said Amrutha Rao, deputy director, DCA.

DCA inspectors who conducted inspections in Karimnagar, Nalgonda and Ranga Reddy districts have seized 278 varieties of medicines worth 20 lakhs from pharmacies in the three districts.

In another case, the DCA officials have seized illegally manufactured drugs worth more than Rs. 34 lakhs from various pharmaceutical firms in Medak, Ranga Reddy and Hyderabad districts in the state.

Senior DCA officials revealed that 25 pharma units in Hyderabad, Medak, and Rangareddy, have been found violating the Drugs and Cosmetic Act (D&C Act) and prohibited drugs worth Rs. 34 lakhs have been seized from the illegal manufacturers in the state.

According to Amruth Rao, during their recent inspection of a firm called Herbochem in Balanagar, fish feed supplement containing Ivermectin, worth Rs. 4 lakhs was found illegally stashed in the warehouse. “The unit does not have license to use Ivermectin to manufacture the fish feed supplement. The illegally manufactured fish feed is supplied and is sold in Andhra Pradesh,” said Rao.

In another case, 500 kg of Lactic Acid Bacillus worth Rs 4.75 lakh was seized from Microbax (India) Limited in Patancheru mandal of Ranga Reddy district. It was also found that the unit bought the product from one company and sold to another in the US claiming they manufactured it. This is violation under Section 17 (b) (e) of Drugs and Cosmetics Act.

In view of the above violations, the DCA officials have issued show cause notices to all the 25 manufacturing firms and booked cases against the chemists and druggists for illegally stockpiling the medicines meant for government hospitals.