In a major crackdown against abuse of medical intoxicants in Haryana, Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has unearthed a racket of illicit diversion and transportation of Codeine, a cough syrup manufactured and sold by a multinational pharmaceutical giant Abbott laboratories ltd.
Also, more than two lakh bottles of a popular cough syrup Phensedyl Cough linctus worth more than Rs 1 crore supplied by its manufacturing company to a Hisar based wholesaler firm M/s JP Medicose were found to have been diverted to Bangladesh illegally by the firm in connivance with another non-functional Bhiwani-based medicine wholesaler.
A spokesperson of FDA said that investigations by the FDA officers revealed that the huge quantities of this cough syrup were supplied by the company directly to the Hisar based dealer who had further shown to have supplied the entire stocks to a Bhiwani based unlicenced medicine trader whose licences were expired in 2008. The entire sales were found to have been made to this Bhiwani based firm without any supply order and shown to have been made against cash payment.
He said that on further investigations by the FDA it was found that the entire sale was fake as the firm to whom sales have been made was non-existent. The FIR under various provisions of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act 1985 has been registered against the Hisar-based firm and its owner at Hisar police station for illicit transshipment of more than 40 kilo Codeine. The licenced premises of the firm have also been sealed by the department.