By Sanjeev Kumar Patro
Bhubaneswar: Have you bought Pantocid (Pantoprazole tablets) of Sun Pharma with batch number SID2041A from your local medicine store? Be aware! Stop taking this medicine for your usual gastric ailments remedy. This is a fake drug, declared the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO). Its expiry date is till June 2025
The Pantocid tablets with the batch number detected as fake by CDSCO eastern zone lab in West Bengal. The Gujarat-based reputed pharmaceutical company has disowned the product, and the CDSCO is investigating the matter.
Similarly, if you have purchased the high blood pressure medicine Telma H 40 with batch number 18230080 manufactured by another reputed drug manufacturer Glenmark, stop taking that medicine and report immediately to your doctor. The expiry date of the medicine is Jan, 2026.
The CDSCO has detected this medicine to be spurious or fake. The CDSCO lab in Kolkata has test-checked a sample of this high BP drug and found it fake. The Himachal Pradesh based well known manufacturer Glenmark denied the medicine to be their product and declared it a spurious drug.
ODISHA SCENARIO
The State Task Force on Spurious drugs in Odisha has seized Pantocid with manufacturer name as Sun Pharma last year in Angul. The raids conducted by STF this year in February confiscated fake drugs worth Rs 1 crore form 22 places across the State.
As per the STF report, the fake/spurious drugs seized from 22 places across the State caters to cardiac (high BP) like Telma -40 and proton-pump inhibitor drugs for common gastric ailment of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) like Pantocid and Pan D.
CDSCO ON MORE FAKES
The latest CDSCO report on spurious drugs has also listed the following drugs with manufacturer name as spurious.
- Pulmosil (Sildenafil Injection) with Batch no - KFA0300, Manufactured by Sun Pharma in 2023. Expiry date May 2025
- This injection is prescribed for a type of High BP – Pulmonary Arterial hypertension (heart-lungs blood pressure –means when hypertension is felt in lungs, heart pumps more blood leading to high BP).
- Ursocol 300 tablets with Batch number GTE1350A manufactured by Sun Pharma Expiry date – May 2025.
- Doctors prescribe this medicine for diseases like dissolving gall stones and other liver-related ailments like cirrhociss and liver dysfunction.
- Deflazacort tablets with Batch number GDB23041A and expiry date of April 2026 is manufactured by Daman based drug manufacturer Macleods
- All the manufacturers denied it to be their original product. They declared all the drugs as spurious. The CDSCO is conducting investigation to find out who is the real manufacturer.
- But the CDSCO has alerted all public form purchasing the aforementioned medicines with details (batch number) given, and those who have the drugs with them, immediately inform to your doctor/authorities for disposal.
CDSCO ALERTS FAKE PARACETOMOL
With the CDSCO flagging Paracetomol 500 IP tablets of manufacturers like T&G Medicare, ALCO formulation, ANG Life Sciences and Karnataka Antibiotics, Dr Ishwar Gilada, infectious disease expert told ANI that the flagging of 53 spurious drugs in popular use by CDSCO is very serious. This doesn’t forbid well for India, as being the pharma capital in world, this will bring bad name and impact our standing in generic drug market.”
HERE’S THE LIST: DON’T BUY THE FOLLWOING
The CDSCO has found fake medicines on sale in the country that are manufactured by well known brands. The list is below.
ALKEM Health Science:
- Clavam 625 for tonsillitis, sinusitis
- Pan-D (Pantoprazole Gastro Restraint) – for GERD, high Acidity
LIFE MAX CANCER
- Telmisartan -40 – for High Blood Pressure
- Olmesartan -40 – for High BP from 6 year child to Adults.
- Calcium 500mg with Vitamin D3 250 IU– For bone, muscles, joint health
ANTI-DIAHORREA TABLETS – Norfloxacin and O2 tablets from the following manufacturers
- Ridley Life Science pvt ltd
- Amkon Pharma ltd
BOTTOMLINE: The CDSCO has listed as many as 53 drugs as spurious. The Odisha STF has to carry out necessary vigil to find out the level of penetration in Odisha market, when the raids in Feb 2024 had underlined the enormity of fake medicine at hand in the State. The names need to be published in all major local dailies to save precious lives.
