The Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) has recently lodged an FIR against a wholesaler for supplying spurious products in six districts of Gujarat.
The spurious products of Sterillium gel-rub-in-hand disinfectant for hygienic and surgical hand disinfection is widely used in hospital operation theaters (OTs) pre-and post-surgery.
Following a massive crackdown, the state regulator seized 547 bottles of 500 ml quantity and 2,896 bottles of 100 ml quantity of Sterillium gel from across six districts of Gujarat – Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Himmatnagar, Bhuj, Surat and Rajkot.
The original manufacturer of Sterillium gel is Raman & Weil manufactures specialized disinfectants. As per preliminary investigation, the wholesaler used to source products from an unknown manufacturing unit in Madhya Pradesh.
This comes at a time when Gujarat FDCA has prosecuted a spurious drug manufacturer for supplying fake medicine to US market. The spurious herbal drug manufacturer based in Ahmedabad used to supply spurious herbal drugs to the US market in the name of dietary supplements.
The fake medicines used to be mixed with allopathic medicines to treat chronic ailments like diabetes, cholesterol, arthritis, allergies and impotence.
Gujarat FDCA tested the samples at its Vadodara testing lab and found that the drugs which claimed to be health supplements were actually mixed with allopathic drugs like metformin, diclofenac, paracetamol, cetrizine among others.
A racket of this nature was detected a few months ago in March this year when Gujarat FDCA and Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mutually detected an inter-state spurious drug racket.
The prime accused of the racket was booked for contravening the provisions of Section 18 c and Section 27 of Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 for illegal stocking and selling spurious medications without a license and purchase bill.
