Haryana unearths cough syrup diversion to Bangladesh
Monday, 3 March 2014
In a crackdown against abuse of medicinal intoxicants, India's Haryana's Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) said it has unearthed illicit diversion and transportation to Bangladesh of huge quantities of a cough syrup made and sold by a multinational pharmaceutical giant. The FDA found out that over two lakh bottles of cough syrup Phensedyl, worth over Rs.1 crore, supplied by pharma manufacturer Abbott Laboratories Ltd to Hisar-based wholesale firm M/s J.P. Medicose, were diverted to Bangladesh illegally by the firm in connivance with another non-functional Bhiwani-based medicine wholesaler. The consignment of two lakh bottles of the cough syrup was seized by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) Berhampur in West Bengal recently before it could be exported to Bangladesh. Phensedyl is not to be sold by chemists in India without prescription from doctors owing to its misuse by people as an intoxicant. A police complaint under various provisions of the 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 trans-shipment, the spokesperson said, according to IANS.