FDA collects samples; GMCH halts medicine use

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has started inspecting government hospitals following the state-wide counterfeit drugs scandal. FDA officials collected five samples from GMCH and three from the District Hospital on Wednesday.

Drug Inspector Anjali Mitkar collected the samples from GMCH, while Drug Inspector Baliram Marewad collected those from the District Hospital. Two of the three samples from the District Hospital were supplied by M/s Vishal Enterprises. However, counterfeit drugs supplied to Swami Ramanand Teerth Hospital in Ambajogai were not found in the District Hospital.

No medicines were supplied to the hospital from manufacturers Maristal Formulations (Uttarakhand), Refund Pharma (Kerala), Biotech Formulations (Andhra Pradesh), Melvan Biosciences (Kerala) or SMN Labs (Uttarakhand). M/s Vishal Enterprises supplied 33 types of medicines to GMCH. The hospital administration has suspended their use. The District Hospital also received medicines from the same supplier but has not received any instructions from the health department on whether to stop or continue their use.