Bengaluru: In continuation with the investigation into the spurious drug manufacturing racket in the outskirts of Bengaluru city, the Karnataka government has decided to stop business with global pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and has cancelled the license of 16 other firms, under whose name the spurious drugs were being manufactured.
Besides, the government has also decided to suspend transactions with the 14 stockists of Pfizer medicine across the state. Pfizer and other 16 firms did not cooperate with the government's investigation, leading to the harsh decision by the government.
Karnataka Health Minister U T Khader said that the preliminary investigation found that the premises where the spurious drugs were being manufactured were allegedly being used to procure low-cost medicines from the neighbouring states.
A large network is involved in spurious medicines that have links with the networks operating in other states. The investigation is underway and details will be made public after the Special Investigation Team (SIT) submits its report, Khader said.
Stating that action had been initiated against several pharmacies and ifrms involved in the case, ``whoever they may be, however powerful they are, we will not spare anyone,'' Khader said.
``Phizer has not cooperated with the authorities in the investigation. Action will be taken against companies and individuals, irrespective of their size or standing,'' Khader said.
Additional Drug Controller Dr Umesh S said that these medicines were allegedly being refilled into new viols and relabelled to imitate expensive life-saving medicines of multinational companies, particularly imported products under the Pfizer brand. Counterfeit labels bearing QR codes were also found, which were non-functional when the department tried to verify them. The suspected spurious medivinces either contained no active medicinal ingredients, incorrect ingredients or toxic substances, he said.
On action against Pfizer, Dr Umesh said that the company had not come forward to identify and recall its genuine products from the market. ``Unless they identify their products, how can we tell which is spurious and which is not,'' he questioned.
``The department has frozen the products. Those drugs that are not identified by the company as its own will be treated as spurious and action has been initiated against those that have stocks with them. Since the same drug combinations manufactured by Pfizer are available from other pharmaceutical companies in the market,, public need not panic,'' Dr Umesh added.
