Drug control team raids flat in Patna, seizes 20k capsules

PATNA, APRIL 2017:

A day after the Bihar health department's drug control authorities and police busted a racket of fake and expired medicines being sold in the market, a team of officials on Saturday recovered 20,000 expired antibiotic capsules of the Bihar Medical Services Infrastructure Corporation Limited (BMSICL) from a tenanted accommodation in the city's Biscomaun Colony.

Sources said the 200 packets of 100 capsules each were recovered from a huge pile of expired medicines stored in a ground-floor flat of Atri Nikunj apartment in the colony's Pyarelal Ka Bagh area. Flat tenant Ramesh Kumar Pathak also runs the scrapstore nearby from where two trucks laden with expired medicines and surgical items were seized during the raids on Friday. Ramesh is absconding.

Patna drug inspector Sachchidanand Prasad, who led the raids, said the BMSICL had purchased these capsules for making supplies to government hospitals for free distribution. "The recovery of these expired BMSICL medicines also means that the concerned did not follow the protocol to dispose of the expired stock," he said, adding a large amount of expired physician's samples and generic medicines were also recovered.

"Prima facie it appears that expired medicines, which should have been destroyed by pharma firms, government hospitals and doctors, are being sold as scrap after which they are relabelled and sold to drug stores," he said.

Prasad quoted his department's intelligence inputs to say that one Bittu Kumar, who owns a scrapstore in Sandalpur in city's Bahadurpur area, was purchasing these expired drugs in an organised manner from several sources. Ramesh's godowns and scrapstore were being used to resample them.

"Chemical solvents were used to whiten the company- printed expiry dates and batch numbers and fresh dates and batch numbers were stamped on them," Prasad said and added several stamps and stickers were also recovered during the raids.

At least 200 types of fake and expired drugs worth over Rs ten crore were recovered from houses-turned godowns, scrapstores and a shop in Bengalai Akhara, Govind Mitra Road, Patrakar Nagar and Alamganj localities in Patna during the raids going on since Friday, the sources said, adding several teams were at work to prepare the seizure lists.

One FIR each has been lodged by the drug officials in the Kadamkuan and Patrakar Nagar police stations and four people have been arrested in this regard so far, Prasad said.