Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Apr 3: The Drug Controller Kashmir today raided provisional drug store of Department of Health Services Kashmir and seized an anti-biotic that was found containing zero milligrams of Amoxicillin instead of 500 milligrams as claimed by the company.
Drug Controller of the State, Satish Gupta told Excelsior that the report of the laboratory about the drug being spurious was received yesterday by the department and today the drug was seized from the market.
Gupta said that it is not yet known how much quantity of the drug has been procured by the Health Department and how much was supplied to the hospitals. “We have started investigations and entire drug stock will be seized from the market”, he added.
Sources said that the drug worth crores of rupees has been procured by the Health Department of the State for the hospitals of the State and it has already been distributed to the hospitals across the State.
The drug, Maximizane 625 milligram along with several other drugs were chosen in random sampling for laboratory testing by the Drug Controller Kashmir last week during market checking. The drugs were sent to the laboratory for testing and the anti-biotic has tested negative as the laboratory report revealed that it contains “NIL” Amoxicillin.
“We were shocked to see the report that showed the drug contained Zero milligrams of Amoxicillin tri-hydrate while the company claims that it contains 500 milligrams of Amoxicillin tri-hydrate + 125 milligrams clavulanic acid”, said a senior officer in Drug Controller department.
The drug (Batch No. PBT 1583 with manufacturing date August 2012 and expiry date January 14, 2014) besides other hospitals was supplied to the Gousia Hospital Rainawari, Srinagar, one of the primer hospitals of Kashmir where from the sample was taken for testing.
A senior official of the Health Department said that the Gousia hospital had received 1000 strips of the anti-biotic and it had already distributed 900 strips among patients while 100 strips were seized by the Drug Controller Kashmir today.
Sources said that the anti-biotic was procured by the Health Department of the State this year only and it is not known why not it was tested before it was distributed to the hospital across the State. Sources said that the drug was to be tested before it was supplied to the hospitals and investigations will now reveal why it was not tested before or before procurement.
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