Rajasthan: Angioplasty stents worth Rs 32 lac seized from a warehouse

Jaipur: A major stock of angioplasty stents worth Rs. 32 lac have been seized from a warehouse of a pharma company near Nirman Nagar, by drug control officers. These stocks were seized by the officers while carrying out a raid in the area . Strong concerns have been raised on whether these sold with due permission and licences.

The officers suspect that these products were being supplied across several private hospitals of the state for last five years reports TOI.

According to Drug Controller, Ajay Fatak, at least 70 or 80 stents were being stored at one place. "These stents belonged to a leading brand. We checked the entire premises and asked its owners about the licenses. It was found that they had no relevant licenses to sell these products," Fatak revealed.

Meticulously designed these stents are used extensively in heart surgeries, where, they are inserted into blood vessels to remove heart blockages, the Drug Controller, further added.

"These wire like stents have very high margin in the market, because of their demand. Since these products were sold without due permissions, we also doubt their quality," Fatak said. The raiding team also discovered that in Sri Ganga Nager district, these devices were being sold without permissions too.

"After Sri Ganga Nagar, we focused on other areas and cities, where similar cases could be found, therefore, on Tuesday we went to a warehouse at Nirman Nagar and seized these stents," Fatak added.

The raiding team stated that the company had supplied these products across several private hospitals of Rajasthan, "We don't know about the quality of these products, also, we are going through the records of the company to ascertain how many products they sold to whom, and are also trying find if there were other people involved," a drug controller official said.

Fatak said that suitable action would be taken against the top officials of the company involved in the supply of these stents.