The Andhra Pradesh government has seized stocks of antibiotic medicines, which were of a substandard quality on Thursday. The Drugs Control Administration (DCA) seized different strengths and combinations of substandard manufactured antibiotic Azithromycin from Rajahmundry, Bhimavaram and Vijayawada.
"These are not fake medicines but medicines which were not manufactured up to the standard. It is not of the standard quality in the sense that it doesn't comply with the label claim. The composition of the drug is not as per the claims," AP Drugs Control Administration Director General S. Ravi Shankar Narayan told IANS.
According to him, the DCA is currently engaged in tracing the medicine back to the dealers with an aim to ultimately reach the manufacturer.
"Once we come to know of the manufacturer and get hold of him, we will be recording his statement and then filing a complaint," he said.
Finding the actual manufacturer is a step by step backward process which, Narayan said, will take some effort and time. He said DCA directly cannot straightaway go to the manufacturer on the label of the medicine as the label itself can be fake.
"Suppose if a company has directly made it and sold it, I will be reaching the original company. If somebody else in between has manufactured and sold it, we will be stopping in the middle and holding them responsible," noted Narayan.
Meanwhile, all the stocks of the faulty antibiotic existing with the distributors and retailers have been recalled, and seized. A court was also informed of the same.
Narayan, a senior Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, said that the retail pharmaceutical outlets have been issued showcase notices as to why due diligence was not done by them while procuring these stocks of Azithromycin.
Meanwhile, the DCA dispatched two teams of officials to Uttarakhand in search of some dealers, even as the manufacturer's address has been traced to the northern state.