Drug Administration conducts 13500 raids in 17 Months – Pannu

Drugs worth Rs. 4.5 Crore seized, 1414 licences suspended

Chandigarh, July 21 (Punjab Post Bureau) – Giving a rundown into the activities of Drug Administration wing of Food and Drug Commissionerate, Punjab, Mr. KS Pannu, CFDA informed that after initial series of awareness campaigns and confidence building measures, the officials of the Commissionerate conducted State-wide raids to check the sale of psychotropic drugs and the compliance of Drugs and Cosmetics Act.

In a period of 17 months falling between January 2018 to May 2019, as many as 13500 inspections were conducted and 5313 samples of drugs were taken. The total value of seized drugs was to the tune of Rs. 4.5 crore. The cumulative test results of samples seized found 11 samples as mis-branded and 203 as ‘Not of Standard Quality’.

Describing the nature of offences, CFDA said that licenses of 1414 firms have been suspended out of which 1278 suspensions were on account of general contraventions while 136 were related to Habit Forming Drugs.

Giving further details, Pannu informed that 171 prosecution orders have been issued against the defaulters and 139 prosecutions have been launched. So far, as many as 120 cases have been decided resulting in 77 convictions ranging between 3 to 5 years of imprisonment along with fine, while 14 accused have been declared as Proclaimed Offenders.

He said that Drug Control Wing will continue to conduct the regular inspections of the medical stores to ensure compliance of Drugs and Cosmetics Act. All the Drug Control Officers including 38 Drug Inspectors and 6 Zonal Licensing Authorities in the State have been asked to be vigilant in their respective jurisdictions and weed out the Spurious / Not of Standard Quality medicines, mis-branded products sans mandatory ‘Schedule H Drug’ declaration as well to check the illegal stock of habit forming drugs, he added. In fact, peoples’ participation in identifying the black sheep has been sought on FDA Helpline number 9815206006 and email id punjabdrugscontrolorg@gmail.com which is proving to be of great help, said Pannu.