‘Not-for-sale’ drugs worth over Rs 50 lakh seized

Patna: Close on the heels of substandard drug purchase and supply by Bihar Medical Services Infrastructure Corporation Limited (BMSICL), the officials of drug control administration of state health department on Wednesday seized medicines worth over Rs 50 lakh from a room in a bylane of Govind Mitra Road.

All the drugs seized were either physician sample or having the label of BMSICL, not for sale. Some of the samples had MRP of the medicine written over the BMSICL logo, said licensing authority of drug control administration, Patna, Subhash Chandra, whose team raided the godown full of such drugs.

State drug controller Hemant Kumar Sinha said, “A proper investigation would be conducted as to how the supply of state government reached the godown. It may be possible that the storekeeper at local level diverted the supply. I will speak to the BMSICL officials and then take further action.”

The officials suspected that even the expiry dates of some of the drugs were tampered with. One such drug was antivenom, manufactured by Biological E Limited. The MRP of the same medicine ranged from Rs 950 to Rs 1500. Though the medicines were required to be kept at 2 to 8 degree Celsius, they were kept in a dark and dingy room. Incidentally, the antivenom drugs have been in short supply in many government hospitals in and around Patna for the last three months.

Another life-saving drug, Piperacllin and Tazobactum, had the BMSICL logo erased and MRP sticker of Rs 350 was pasted over it. This drug also requires to be kept in 2 to 8 degree C temperature.

Anti-D, used during pregnancy, had the stamp, ?Bihar govt supply, not for sale’. The stamp impression was scratched and an MRP sticker of Rs 3400 was pasted over it. At least its two packs with 30 pieces each were recovered till late night. The officials were still busy counting the number of drugs and calculating their worth.

Another life-saving drug, Wepox, was also found. It is given to patients who don’t have optimum number of red blood cells. It was a physician sample not for sale. But the carton had a sticker that said its price in the market would be Rs 350. Meroza was another physician sample. It is an antibiotic that had an MRP sticker of Rs 2600.

The godown belongs to one Dheeraj who runs Sri Hanuman Agency. He escaped. He has three godowns out of which only two have licence.

Courtesy: TNN