12L habit-forming tablets seized

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 21

In a bid to keep tab on the illegal sale and purchase of habit-forming drugs, the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) is conducting regular checking of wholesale and retail drug licencees. The FDA team of Amritsar seized approximately 12 lakh tablets of tramadol, having value of approximately Rs 85 lakh, under the provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. This was disclosed here today by Health and Family Welfare Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu in a press communiqué.

The minister said a team of Baleen Kaur, Drugs Control Officer, Amritsar and Karun Sachdev Zonal Licensing Authority (Drugs), had visited M/s Ravenbhel Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd of Amritsar for the course of routine inspections and found that the firm was bearing valid drugs sales licences by virtue of which allopathic drugs could be stocked for sale and distribution but it did not get the special permission to stock such a large number of tablets of tramadol. The firm had applied for the permission but it had not yet been issued by the licensing authority concerned. He said a notice has been issued for taking action against the firm and further investigation was underway.

He said 701 licences had been suspended of which 600 were suspended due to general contravention and 101 licences had been suspended for contravention regarding habit-forming drugs. Sidhu said two licences had also been cancelled from January to November 2019. Similarly, 87 prosecution orders had been issued against defaulters and 102 prosecutions launched by the FDA.

Sidhu reiterated that the Punjab Government was committed to weed out the drug menace from the state and to achieve this target, strict action was being taken against the violators and defaulters.