Solan : Tightening the noose around traders of spurious pharmaceutical raw material, officials of the Drugs Control Administration (DCA) arrested Sanjay Singh of Allied Pharma Chem from Baddi last evening.
He was produced in a court that remanded him in judicial custody today. “Sanjay Singh was arrested for violating Section 18 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act,” said Baddi DSP Priyank Gupta.
The firm, which was granted a trading licence in 2017, had supplied spurious excipients (pharmaceutical raw material) to KC Overseas, which was further sold to various pharmaceutical firms in the Baddi-Barotiwala area besides Sirmaur district.
Around 7,350 quintal spurious excipients were seized by a DCA team from five-six firms in Kala Amb and Baddi.
“Labels of a leading company, JRS Pharma, Gujarat, were affixed on low-grade excipients by Allied Pharma Chem and the material was sold to various pharmaceutical firms. We are inquiring into various aspects like duration since this unauthorised activity was underway by Allied Pharma Chem as the firm has a licence since 2017. The licence was renewed in 2023 and is valid up to 2028,” said Manish Kapoor, Deputy Drugs Controller, Baddi.
The representatives of leading manufacturer JRS Pharma have been associated to verify if the excipients seized by the officials were manufactured by them.
Earlier, KC Overseas Director Ankit Singla had lodged an FIR with the Barotiwala police alleging breach of trust under Section 406 of the IPC on May 1 against a transport company. Singla had complained that they purchased pharmaceutical raw material from a Panchkula-based firm, Aurobindo Pharma on April 10. It was further supplied to Kala Amb-based Athens Lifesciences and other pharma units through Highway Express. But a salt type material was delivered to Athens Lifesciences instead of Cefpodoxime Proxetil Indian Pharmacopoeia grade. Singla had alleged that the transport company had changed the material weighing 221 kg. The case was being inquired into by the Barotiwala police.
The scale of spurious drug trade was yet to be ascertained with the officials making the second arrest from another company.
