Spurious medicines worth Rs 52 lakh seized by authorities

Ahmedabad : The Food and Drugs Control Administration (FDCA) here seized medicines, including antibiotics, worth over Rs 52 lakh, on suspicion of being spurious, officials said.

On receiving a tip-off that two medicine shops in the city M S R Enterprises and Shraddha Healthcare were storing and selling spurious drugs, the agency raided the stores and seized medicines of different chemical compositions, the FDCA said in a press release.

The agency collected eighteen samples of the drugs suspected to be spurious and sent them to the Food and Drug Laboratory in Vadodara for examination, the release said.

"The main chemical composition of some of the antibiotics seized from the stores is missing, prima facie suggesting that they are spurious. We have sent 18 samples to the laboratory for examination," it said.

The owners of the two drug stores, Shailesh Agarwal and Kamal Jain, informed that they received the consignment from one Yoginin Pharma in Gwalior, and showed bills related to it, the release said.

The FDCA has contacted the agency in Madhya Pradesh for further investigation.

As printed on the medicines packets, the seized medicines have been manufactured in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, the release said.