DCA suspends licences of six wholesalers for 30 days

Hyderabad: The Drugs Control Administration (DCA), Telangana, has taken stringent departmental action by suspending the licences of six wholesalers across the State for 30 days. It also seized medicines worth over Rs 51 lakh.

According to a press release issued here, the licence suspension was due to their illegal procurement of insulin and injections (pre-filled pens) without purchase bills. The action was complemented by the initiation of prosecution proceedings against the wholesalers.

During raids conducted between March 15 and March 20 at six medical distributors in Hyderabad, the DCA detected that insulin injections, sourced from New Delhi without purchase bills, were being sold at substantial discounts of more than 40% by the wholesalers. The DCA seized stocks worth Rs 51.92 lakh during the raids for procuring stocks without purchase bills.

The raids took place at six medical distributors: M/s Drug Hub at Padmaraonagar, Secunderabad (where stocks worth Rs 6.70 lakh were seized), M/s Sree Thirumala Pharma, Ramanthapur, Uppal (medicines worth Rs 3.52 lakh seized), and Shree Paras Medical Agencies, Sultan Bazar (medicines worth Rs 9 lakh seized). A raid was conducted on Sri Ganesh Pharma Distributors, Sainagar Colony, Nagole (Rs 14 lakh worth of medicines seized), Sree Raja Rajeshwara Distributors, Kapra (Rs 2.7 lakh), and Sri Balaji Agencies, Kacheguda (Rs 16 lakh worth of medicines).

Verification of the sales bills of the wholesalers revealed that they were offering the insulin injections, sourced from New Delhi without any accompanying bills, at substantial discounts of more than 40 per cent. The drugs were illegally procured from Delhi and were suspected to have been illegally diverted from the supply chain. Procuring medicines illegally without purchase bills is a violation of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. Illegal procurement of medicines without purchase bills is deemed fraudulent.

The DCA, in addition to launching prosecution against the wholesalers, has taken stringent departmental action by suspending their drug licences.