Popular drugs from reputable companies seized from a Colootola warehouse recently have been found to be fake.
The authorities who conducted the raid said the face value of the haul would be over Rs 2 crore.
The raid, conducted by a joint team of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) and its counterpart in Bengal, the state drug regulatory authority, found medicines with familiar labels like Augmentin, Pan-D, Pantocid DSR, Urimax-D and Clavam in the unauthorised warehouse on the second floor of a building on Maulana Shaukat Ali Street.
“Ashim Sadhu was arrested and remanded in judicial custody,” said a senior official of the state drug regulatory authority.
“Some of the seized drugs include those from reputable pharma companies, including Sun Pharmaceutical, Alkem, Cipla, Glenmark, GSK, Abbott, Novartis, Dr. Reddy’s and Aristo.”
The raid in Colootola was carried out based on information from a man arrested a
few months ago after fake drugs of leading manufacturers worth approximately Rs 10 lakh were seized, an official said.
A CDSCO document on spurious or imitation medicines says they are made by either “unlicensed anti-social elements or by licensed manufacturers”. In either case, the counterfeiters are trying to exploit the popularity of original brands.
A section of medicine wholesalers said the retailers’ urge to offer unrealistic discounts was also leading some of them to dubious sources.
“We have instructed our members across the state to buy medicines from authorised stockists only,” said Sankha Roy Chowdhury, president of the Bengal Chemists and Druggists Association.
Alarmed at the dent the unearthing of fake drugs could leave on their credibility, a section of members of the Bengal Chemists and Druggist Association met senior officials of the state directorate of drugs control last week.
They discussed ways to prevent the distribution of fake medicines across both wholesale and retail outlets.