Illegal Drugs Seized: Aspen Biopharma Labs Raided
Hyderabad: The TS Drugs Control Administration (DCA) officials raided the Sharmirpet unit of Aspen Biopharma Labs Pvt Ltd and seized drugs worth Rs 5.5 lakh that were manufactured despite a stop production order (SPO). The drugs were 110 kg of ciprofloxacin hydrochloride and 8.4 kg of gatifloxacin hydrochloride.
The DCA said it had issued a the SPO in March last year for not conforming with good manufacturing practices and other requirements under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, TS DCA Director General V.B. Kamalasan Reddy said in a press release on Tuesday.
This firm belongs to Kadari Sateesh Reddy, prime accused in the spurious anti-cancer drugs case detected at Macha Bolaram and a key conspirator in the illicit manufacturing of APIs at Annarugudem of Khammam district, both detected in December last.
Violation of the SPO entails imprisonment for up to five years under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.
In a separate raid, DCA officials seized medicines stocked illegally for sale from a rural medical practitioner, Madhavaraju Birudaraju, at Khila Warangal village, Warangal district. He practiced medicine without proper qualification at his clinic, the DCA said. He also did not have a licence to stock and sell medicines.
The DCA said it had found 48 varieties of medicines, including antibiotics, analgesics, cough syrups, anti-ulcer drugs, antihypertensives and IV fluids, worth Rs 52,000 during the raid.