Kasauli man held for trading in spurious pharma raw material

Ambika Sharma

Solan, May 15

A case of spurious pharmaceutical raw material trading has come to light in Baddi where the officials of the Drugs Control Administration (DCA) arrested one Harish Kumar, a resident of Piplata village in Kasauli tehsil.

He was working for a Barotiwala-based firm which sold spurious raw material to renowned pharmaceutical firms in various parts of Himachal. Kumar was arrested under section 17(B) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act by the officials of the DCA on May 11.

As per the information, the staff of the erring firm had affixed labels of branded companies over substandard locally available excipients, which are pharmaceutical raw materials, to make fast buck. Excipients are inert pharmaceutical ingredients which do not have any therapeutic value in a drug.

Harish Kumar has been sent to judicial custody after completion of his police custody, confirmed DSP Baddi, Priyank Gupta.

The officials of the DCA were maintaining silence over the issue. Despite calling the drug inspectors, who have been inquiring into the case for the last four days as well as the drugs licensing authorities, none was ready to divulge any information. It is learnt that the firm owners were yet to be arrested. A team of drug inspectors and an assistant drugs controller was raiding various premises where raw material had been traded by the said firm.

The firm had been trading such raw material to various industrial clusters like Kala Amb, Paonta Sahib as well as Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial hub for the past several months.

Deputy Drugs Controller, Manish Kapoor, confirmed that the field staff was enquiring into a case of substandard raw material for the last four days. He said the final report was awaited from the staff.

The pharmaceutical raw material traders are granted license under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. The use of substandard raw material is been seen as a major reason behind manufacturing of sub-standard drugs.

The case has once again exposed the proliferating substandard raw material trade in the region.

Was working for Barotiwala firm

• He was working for a Barotiwala-based firm which sold spurious raw material to renowned pharmaceutical firms.
• The accused has been sent to judicial custody after completion of his police custody, confirmed DSP Baddi.
• Deputy Drugs Controller said that the field staff was enquiring into a case of substandard raw material.