Chandigarh health department busts counterfeit drug racket

On finding the fake manufacturing units, the Chandigarh health department seized the entire stock of the medicines, worth ₹4.6 lakh, from the firm and initiated legal proceedings against it

The UT health department on Thursday busted a counterfeit drug racket after a firm was found selling medicines bearing names of non-existent manufacturing firms.

On April 20, a joint team of UT drug inspectors Amit Lakhanpal and Tajinder Singh had raided a firm situated in the inner market of Burail, Sector 45. During the search operation, the firm was found to be stocking and selling various drugs. (Getty images)

“Special drives are being conducted in the city, led by health services director Dr Suman Singh, with the motive to keep a check on the flow of substandard drugs in the market. On April 20, a joint team of UT drug inspectors Amit Lakhanpal and Tajinder Singh had raided a firm situated in the inner market of Burail, Sector 45. During the search operation, the firm was found to be stocking and selling various drugs, mostly antibiotics, without any purchase record. As a suspicion, the team took samples of nine medicines and sent them to Government Analyst, Chandigarh, for testing,” UT health secretary Yashpal Garg said.

“However, when enquired from State Drugs Controlling Authority, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the manufacturing firms mentioned on the labels of the suspicious drugs were found to be fake. The content of these eight drugs were declared as nil. The drugs including, AZINX-500, JINXO-625, RAIFEXI-200 and JINXTUM 500, had fake manufacturer name as ‘Ginx Pharmakon LLP, 68/61, Tekri village, Trilokpur, Kala Amb, Sirmaur district, Himachal Pradesh’. Also, TUKCEF AZ tablets and TUKCEF O medicines had a fake manufacturer as ‘Tukran Pharmaceuticals LLP, Khasra No. 884/78-9, near Railway Crossing, Igbalpur Road, Roorkee district, Uttarakhand’. The medicine MEDOXIME tablets had a fake manufacturer as ‘Medocal Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd, Khasra No. 584/6, 11 Milestone, Puhana, Iqbalpur Road, Roorkee district, Uttarakhand’,” the secretary added.

Most of these medicines were being sold to treat various types of bacterial infections, such as sinus infection, respiratory tract infections and urinary infections.

It is worth mentioning that the UT health department had raided another firm in Maloya in April this year and had seized Avi-Clav 625 LB tablets worth ₹3.5 lakh, Batch No. PFI-2278, manufactured by M/s Proceed Formulations, Dera Bassi, Punjab, after the Government Analyst, Chandigarh, had declared the contents of the drug as nil.