Battle against quackery: Telangana DCA raids 52 quacks, seizes medicine worth Rs 33.25L

Hyderabad: Telangana Drug Control Administration (DCA) has raided 52 quacks and seized medicines worth Rs 33.25 lakh.

The raids were carried out from January 4 to May 21, according to the data provided by the DCA officials.

The DCA officials carried out raids against quacks in Hyderabad, Serilingampally, Rangareddy, Warangal, Medak, Nizamabad, Sangareddy, Yadadri -Bhuvanagiri, Jayashankar Bhupalpally, Khammam, Nagarkurnool, Wanaparthy, Medchal-Malkajgiri, Vikarabad, Suryapet, Nalgonda and Mahabubnagar districts.

Raids and Seizures carried out at Quacks:

Speaking to the NewsMeter, DCA director-general VB Kamalasan Reddy said the largest seizure was made on January 23.

On credible information, the DCA officials of Serilingampally Zone raided the premises of Rahul Kumar Sharma in Narsingi. Rahul Kumar called himself a 'private Q medical practitioner' at his clinic Anvish Clinic. But the officials found no medical qualifications under his name.

During the raid, the DCA officials detected huge stocks of medicines on the premises without any drug license. "Around 27 varieties of drugs including antibiotics, anti-ulcer drugs, pain killer drugs, antitussive drugs, multivitamins, etc were found. The total stock worth Rs 5 lakhs was seized during the raid," Reddy said.

On February 20, the DCA officials raided quacks MD Ismail and G Nageshwar Rao in Gadepadu village in Khammam district. The duo claimed to be ‘Rural Medical Practitioners’ were found practicing medicine without qualification. The officials seized stocks including antibiotics, analgesics, anti-ulcer drugs, antihypertensives, and more worth Rs 2.30 lakhs.

On May 2, the DCA raided the Vayu clinic in Secunderabad, which is run by Pullagurla Venkateshwar Reddy, a quack who poses as an MBBS doctor. Additionally, they found large quantities of medicines stocked at the premises without any drug licence. These were intended for Indian Railways supply. During the operation, the authorities also discovered prescription books and doctor stamps with fictitious registration numbers at the clinic. They also seized drugs worth Rs 1.6 lakh stocked for sale at the clinic and then filed a police complaint against Reddy.

Blood Centers – Surprise Raids – Special Drive

The DCA director-general said that apart from seizing the substandard drugs, the special teams constituted by the department also carried out risk-based inspections without prior notice at nine blood centers on February 21 as part of a special drive.

The special teams inspected Sri Balaji Blood Centre, Nalgonda X Roads, Malakpet, Navjeevan Blood Centre, Kamala Nagar, Chaitanyapuri, Dilsukhnagar, AVS Blood Centre, Lakdikapul, Rudhira Voluntary Blood Centre, Liberty Road, Himayat Nagar, Prathima Sai Blood Centre, Old Lancer Lines, beside Srikara Hospitals, Secunderabad, Thalassemia Rakshitha Voluntary Blood Bank, Putlibowli X roads, Koti, Vivekananda Blood Centre, Ayodhya Nagar Colony Blood Centre, Mehdipatnam, Nandi Blood Centre, Balanagar X Roads, and MSN Blood Centre, Uppal X Roads, Medchal-Malkajgiri district.

Reddy said that the special teams detected several shortcomings during their raids at the blood banks, including lapses in blood and blood component testing, excessive charges collected by blood banks, inadequate record maintenance, and lack of calibration of certain critical equipment, etc. A departmental action was taken against nine blood centers suspending the licence of eight blood centers and canceling licence of one blood center, he added.

Seizure of non-standard quality (NSQ) drugs

Informing the seizure details of NSQ drugs by the Drugs Control Authority (DCL), Reddy said that in all the DCL reported 50 NSQs from January -April. In January, the DCL reported 19 NSQs, followed by 12 NSQs each in February and March and 7 NSQs in April.

“Spurious drugs are a serious threat to public health. Everyone could become a victim of the alarming scenario of fake pharmaceuticals entering the market. One in ten medical products in low- and middle-income nations are either subpar or fabricated, as per the WHO's estimates,” the DCA director-general said and added that based on the manufacturer's compliance history, risk-based inspections are conducted.