Alert across country on drugs made by Baddi firm

Tribune News Service

Ambika Sharma

Solan, December 3

The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation has alerted all drug licensing authorities (DLAs) across the country to check the circulation of spurious medicines manufactured by Baddi-based Trizal Formulation in the name of various renowned companies.

Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) VG Somani issued the directions on December 1 after the receipt of a detailed report from Himachal Drugs Controller Navneet Marwaha.

Couriered to Uttar pradesh

• The spurious drugs were allegedly manufactured by Trizal Formulation under name of renowned brands
• ‘Mastermind’ Mohit Bansal owned wholesale shop MH Pharma in Agra; 10 boxes sent from Baddi found there

Spurious drugs with a face value of over Rs 1 crore were seized by the Drugs Control Administration (DCA) between November 22 and 24 from a car, two godowns and the unauthorised manufacturing unit of Trizal Formulation in Baddi.

The batch numbers of the seized medicines, including Montair, Atorva, Roseday, Zerodol TH4, Dytor, Dilzem SR, Urispas and BioD3 capsules, have been communicated to the DCGI for further action. Four persons—“mastermind” Mohit Bansal, Atul Gupta, Vijay Kaushal and Naresh Kumar—have been arrested by the DCA for allegedly manufacturing spurious drugs. A huge stock of these drugs is learnt to have been sold in shops across Agra, Aligarh and Iglas in UP. The drugs were marketed by wholesale firm MH Pharma, based in Kotwali (Agra) and owned by Mohit. He along with other associates was also operating Trizal Formulation.

The seized drugs are the spurious versions of leading brands manufactured by renowned companies such as Cipla, Zydus Cadila, USV Private Limited, IPCA Laboratories among others.

Given the scale of the seizure, it appears the markets may have been flooded with spurious drugs such as montair-10 tablets (used for asthma prevention), about 2.89 lakh tablets of which were seized during raids. The other recoveries included over 1.90 lakh tablets of Zerodol TH4, used as muscle relaxant; more than 32,500 tablets of Atorva-10 and 1.63 lakh of Roseday-10, both prescribed for cholesterol; and over 1,300 capsules of BioD3 plus, a vitamin D supplement, said officials.

Sources said to escape the authorities, Bansal would send the spurious drugs from Baddi to his wholesale chemist shop at Agra through a courier service. Prior to his arrest on November 22 as well, 10 to 12 boxes of counterfeit medicines had been couriered to MH Pharma, said Marwaha.

“The UP drug authorities were alerted by their Himachal counterparts last evening about a courier having been sent by Mohit Bansal to Agra. The consignment was located at the store of a courier company at Sikandra (Agra). A team of drug officials from Baddi has taken its possession,” said Akhilesh Jain, Assistant Commissioner Drugs at Agra. The courier service may have been used for the purpose since June when the accused began their operations, said sources.

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