The Karnataka Food Safety and Drugs Administration (FSDA) has cancelled the licences of 16 pharmaceutical retailers and wholesalers, and suspended those of eight others, including Pfizer Ltd’s wholesale depot in Nelamangala, as part of an ongoing investigation into the alleged distribution and sale of spurious drugs.
The action follows the FSDA’s August 18 raid on a farmhouse in Bidadi, in Bengaluru South district, where the department said it uncovered an unlicensed drug repacking and relabelling operation. Drugs, injection-filling machinery, forged labels and stamps and other material worth Rs 5.05 crore were seized from the premises.
As part of the follow-up investigation, the FSDA said it cancelled 16 drug licences and suspended eight others belonging to retailers and wholesalers involved in the alleged distribution and sale of the spurious medicines. The licence of Pfizer Ltd’s wholesale depot at Kempanalinganahalli in Nelamangala taluk, Bengaluru Rural district, has also been suspended.
The 16 cancelled licences include those of Avesco Healthcare, Bangalore Speciality Pharma, Bengalurus Speciality Pharma, Patel Medi Trade, Rajarajeshwari Pharma, N.S. Pharma, Surya Speciality Pharma, SWS Pharma, Krupa Healthcare, St Philomena Hospital Drug Centre, Sagar Pharma, Zymus Pharma, Fortune Medical Solutions, Excelcare Pharma, Patel Medicals and another firm named Bangalore Speciality Pharma.
The eight suspended licences are those of Med Pharma, Surya Speciality Hospital, Sagar Pharma’s Unit-II, Vivantha Pharmaceuticals, Maruthi Medicals, Viva Pharma, Hi-5 Pharma and Pfizer Ltd.
According to the FSDA, the Bidadi premises were allegedly being used to procure low-cost medicines from neighbouring states, refill them into new vials and relabel them as expensive, imported life-saving drugs of multinational companies.
The department said, “To deceive buyers and maximise illicit profits, the counterfeit labels featured QR/scanning codes, which were found to be completely nonfunctional upon verification. These spurious drugs contain no active medicinal components, the wrong ingredients, or toxic substances, posing a fatal threat to public health.”
The department said 30 boxes of expired medicines were also seized. The seized stock included 5,640 vials of CEFIAVIGENT 2.5 injection, 1,531 vials of HIZLAM injectables and 264 vials of EMBLAVEO bearing the name of Pfizer Ltd, besides other medicines, packaging material, injection-filling machinery and forged labels and stamps.
The FSDA said the premises were being used for the manufacture, storage and distribution of medicines without a valid licence. A criminal case has been registered under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
The department has blocked the batch numbers and entries of the seized drugs on the Karnataka FDA portal to prevent their further sale or distribution. Samples have also been sent to a laboratory to verify their chemical composition, sterility and potency.
The FSDA has urged citizens to buy medicines only from licensed pharmacies and against valid tax invoices. It has also asked people to report suspicious changes in drug packaging or QR codes that do not scan.
The investigation is continuing to trace the supply chain and identify others allegedly involved in the racket. The department said the seized material will be produced before the JMFC court in Bengaluru South for further legal proceedings.