Fake abortion-inducing antibiotic drugs worth Rs 40 L seized in Gujarat

Ahmedabad: Fake abortion-inducing antibiotic drugs and medicines worth Rs 40 lakh were seized by Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) from two separate locations in Sabarkantha district on Friday.

Two individuals have been detained for questioning in this regard, officials said on Saturday.

Acting on a credible tip-off, the FDCA officials conducted a raid at a medical shop in the Girdharnagar area of Himmatnagar and the raid led to the confiscation of a substantial quantity of counterfeit antibiotic drugs, according to a statement issued by FDCA Commissioner H.G. Koshia.

As per Koshia's statement, the seized counterfeit drugs were purported to contain components such as cefixime, azithromycin, and bacillus, which are typically used to treat severe medical conditions.

The medicines bore the name of the manufacturer as 'Meg Life Sciences, Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh.' However, subsequent inquiries with the Himachal Pradesh drug controller revealed no such company existed.

Further raising suspicions, the shop owner, Harsh Thakkar, could not produce any sales or purchase records for these medicines, ultimately confirming their counterfeit nature, as detailed in the release.

Four samples of the confiscated medicines have been dispatched to a laboratory in Vadodara for thorough analysis.

Meanwhile, authorities are actively interrogating Thakkar to ascertain the origin of these fake drugs.

Later in the day, the FDCA team carried out a subsequent operation, this time raiding a residence located near Himmatnagar town hall. During this operation, they seized abortifacient drugs and other medicines valued at Rs 12.74 lakh.

Further investigations uncovered that the owner of Swaminarayan Medical Agency, Dhaval Patel, had stored these medicines at his residence for illegal sale, operating without the requisite permissions from authorities.

With inputs from IANS