Odisha Spurious COVID Drug Racket: MP Food and Drugs Administration Raids at Various Places in State

BHOPAL / In connection with a racket of fake Favipiravir tablets (use in Covid-19 treatment) busted in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) on Monday conducted searches at the premises of various chemist stockists and shops in several districts of the state. The FDA teams seized allegedly spurious Favimax-400mg tablets.

Even as several rackets of fake Covid medicines have been busted in the country and taken actions against those who are involved in them as well as. Another racket of counterfeit anti-viral drug Favipiravir, a drug used in the treatment of COVID-19, is crack downed in Odisha’s Cuttack on 10 June.

“After apprising to the FDA Madhya Pradesh by the Controllers drugs of Odisha and Haryana states, we have instructed all the drug inspectors of the state to take immediate actions in this connection”, P Narhari, controller FDA Madhya Pradesh told The Sun Today. “Our drug inspectors conducted the search operations at various chemist-shops and stockists in Bhopal, Gwalior, Balaghat, Mandsaur, and Tikamgarh, they collected samples of such Favimax-400mg medicine and sent them to State drug testing laboratories Bhopal for analysis and investigations. The stocks of these tablets have been seized under Farm-15 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act till the further order “, Narhari said.

He added that after completion of the investigation, prosecution cases will be launched in the specially designated Courts under the provisions of the Drugs & Cosmetics Act and Rules thereunder.

According to sources, M/s. Shri Mahadev Medicals and Surgicals, Gwalior (M.P.) had purchased 40,600 tablets of spurious Favipiravir Tablets (Favimax-400), from a Cuttack-based buyer company of Odisha. The fake tablets allegedly manufactured by M/s. Max Relief Health Care, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, reportedly a non-existing manufacturer. These medicines were purchased by a company in Cuttack. Gwalior-based stockiest has supplied the fake Favimax-400 tablets in the various parts of the state, sources also said.

A raid was conducted on the premises of the buyer firm by the Cuttack’sd drugs inspectors, they also found that the Cuttack-based company had purchased 58,000 “Favimax-400” tablets from an entity located at Gautam Budh Nagar in Uttar Pradesh.