Gujarat: Expired drugs racket busted in Ahmedabad; probe initiated against two
The FDCA found expired injections that were being relabeled and sold in a raid at a drug wholesaler in Ahmedabad.
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat Food and Drugs Control Administration (FDCA) busted a racket in which expired medicines were relabelled and sold in Ahmedabad. The department seized the medicines after the raid and lodged an FIR against this agency. The FDCA has initiated an investigation against two people who were involved in the scandal.
The FDCA found expired injections that were being relabeled and sold in a raid at a drug wholesaler in Ahmedabad. They were selling a ‘Scorbint-C’ injection used to treat scurvy.
Talking about the case, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr H G Koshia said that strict action will be taken against those who play with public health. “The raid revealed that Scorbint-C injection, used in the treat 'scurvy', was being relabelled and sold. A thorough investigation is being done against Tejendra Maheshbhai Thakkar and Swapnil Pujara, who were involved in this scandal,” he said.
Injections were expired in March
On the basis of the information received, an FDCA team checked M/s Mahadev Agency in Amraiwadi on June 2. “On inquiring about the purchase and sale of this medicine, Tejendra Thakkar regarding the purchase and sale of 444 units of Scorbint-C injection. Thakkar confessed that the injections expired in March 2023. Swapnil Pujara helped with the relabelling. They printed labels, changing the batch numbers and the expiry date to September 2023.”
All details such as the date of production, the expiry date from the medicine bottle and the name of the manufacturer were removed from the label. These expired injections were sold by invoice from United Enterprises, Ellisbridge, Ahmedabad dated 22/05/2023.
FIR registered against accused
On further investigation, they revealed that these five injections were sold by changing the label with the help of Pujara Swapnil Maheshbhai for money. Apart from this, the bill for the remaining 439 injections is also not available.
An FIR has been registered against the accused people at Amraiwadi police station. Koshia further said that during the test, four out of five injections have been sent for analysis to the Food and Drug Laboratory in Vadodara and the remaining one has been submitted along with the report. The investigation of the remaining 439 injections is still going on.