The Union Health Ministry took major steps on Tuesday (December 31) to put an end to fake medicines in the market. As part of the operation, the CDSCO raided a drug wholesaler in Kolkata and recovered a cache of fake medicines for cancer, diabetes and other diseases. The price of these drugs would be around Rs 6.6 crore. This step was taken jointly by the Central Drug Standards Control Organization (CDSCO), Eastern Region and West Bengal Directorate of Drug Control.
Medicines for these diseases were found during the raid
According to information received from the Ministry of Health, medicines for cancer, diabetes and other diseases were recovered during the raid. These drugs are considered fake. In fact, these medicines were labeled as being manufactured in countries like Ireland, Turkey, America, Bangladesh, etc. but no concrete documents were found for importing them to India. The market value of the seized drugs is estimated to be around Rs 6.60 crore. Samples of these drugs have been sent for testing. At the same time, the remaining medicines were confiscated by the CDSCO.
An investigation will be carried out after action
It is said that the owner of this wholesale business is a woman who was arrested. The police produced the accused in court, where he was remanded in police custody for 14 days. This matter is under investigation.
CDSCO reports fake medicines every month
It should be noted that a report is published every month by the CDSCO concerning counterfeit medicines. Before preparing this report, drug samples are taken every month from different markets. Action is taken against drugs that are not found in accordance with the standard. In the report released in November, samples of 41 drugs failed to pass the quality test, with national drug testing laboratories retaining 70 samples in this category. At the same time, in November 2024, samples of two drugs were identified as fake drugs. Of these, one sample was collected by the Bihar Drug Control Authority and the other by CDSCO Ghaziabad. These medications were manufactured by unauthorized and unknown manufacturers using the brand names of other companies.
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