The Ernakulam zone of the Kerala drugs control administration has registered cases of violation of DPCO of National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) for overcharging against a retail pharma shop in the city and reported it to the national authority.
According to assistant drugs controller (ADC) Pradeep Kumar, Alpha Drug House on T D Road was selling the drug Nircip 500 mg tab, containing ciprofloxacin HCL 500 mg with an MRP of Rs.80 for 10 tablets, instead of Rs.60 fixed by the NPPA. The inspectors prevented the sales of this drug, which comes around 5740x10 tabs, worth around Rs.4.5 lakh.
Another tab, Astharid 2, containing salbutamol 2mg was sold with an MRP of Rs.3 for 10 tablets, instead of Rs.1.20. The officials stopped the sales a total of 4200x10 tablets worth Rs.12,600.
Another anomaly the enforcement officials found during inspection was that the shop was selling Medox- SG capsule, Medox- AT capsule and Pregabanyl Plus capsules under the guise of food supplements, but were having active ingredients of methyl cobalamine (1500mcg), alpha lipoic acid (100mg/200mg), vitamin B1 (3mg/10mg) and vitamin B6 (3mg). The officials seized the drugs worth Rs.six lakhs and produced before the court which ordered to keep the drugs under safe custody.
In addition to methyl cobalamine, the Pregabanyl Plus capsules contained pregabalin (75mgs), alpha lipoic acid (200mg ) and folic acid (2.5 mg).
Pradeep Kumar said methyl cobalamine is an official ingredient in Japanese Pharmacopoeia and is used for the treatment of diabetic neuropathy. The three seized capsules are having vitamins above the specified quantity as per Schedule V of the Drugs & Cosmetics Rules, 1945, for prophylactic/ therapeutic dosage. Further, the label of the above drugs directs the consumers to ‘Keep the medicines out of reach of children’ and also specifies the dosage.
According to him, the label states that “overages of vitamins added to compensate loss on storage/loss during storage”, as to be stated mandatorily on the labels of vitamin containing drugs. The drugs were manufactured as capsules which are in dosage forms and no such statement as ‘Not For Medicinal Use’ has been mentioned on the label of these drugs.
He said on verification of purchase records, the shop was collecting tax as those of drugs.
There was another combination, Tramonil P, with a combination of Tramadol and Paracetamol, manufactured by Nirma Ltd, Gujarat. The inspectors prevented the sales of 2800x10 tablets worth Rs.168,000.
In total, the drug control officials have seized a total quantity of drugs worth Rs.639,800 from the shop, Pradeep Kumar said. |
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