Fake medicines have become one of the major menaces in the current society. With the incredible demand drugs garnered in the recent ages, people went rolling on fake medicines at the different prices. The recent investigations by the Telangana Drug Control Administration (DCA) revealed that a fly-by-night operator, registered as a drug distributor, was infusing counterfeit drugs of famous brands into the market.

Telangana DCA in-charge director T Kailasam has checked in the case and revealed that the erring distributor was identified as Siva Balaji Agencies of Saidabad, run by K Sridhar. DCA officials informed this to the second Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Court at Nampally and said a charge sheet will be filed after an in-depth probe.

Meanwhile, Kailasam said, “Andhra Pradesh DCA officials unearthed a racket in Nandyal, Kurnool district. After the firm Lathasree Agencies sent counterfeit drugs to Hyderabad, we started an investigation, conducted searches and seized the drugs on Nov 18 and Nov 21 in Hyderabad. Siva Balaji Agencies was found distributing Ultracet and Pantocid drugs. The spurious drugs were manufactured in Roorkee, Uttarakhand, and New Delhi is the hub. It came to Nandyal and then to Hyderabad.”

“Immediately after the lab report, we asked drug inspectors to recall batch N504 of Ultracet tablets in the name of Johnson and Johnson as the racketeers had mixed genuine tablets made by the firm with spurious ones. The lab report revealed that Ultracet duplicated by the racket has only paracetamol ingredient and no tramadol hydrochloride,” he then added.

Analyses in government labs revealed that drugs mimicking well-known brands are not of standard quality. Sources claim that the racketeers also duplicated batch number EMR 1051 of Pantocid by Sun Pharma. “Instead of 40mg dose, the ingredient had the only 25mg. Our lab has reported it is not of standard quality. By then, Siva Balaji Agencies had distributed the drug to three pharmacists. However, we managed to recall the stock,” Kailsasam concluded.

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