A fake medicine factory was busted in Delhi’s Ghulabi Bagh area by the Delhi Police Crime Branch on Sunday, as said by the officials.

The illegal unit was being run in Ghulabi Bagh's industrial area. The illegal unit was involved in the manufacturing of ‘Betnovate-N’ gel.

Betnovate is used to treat various inflammatory skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis, insect bites, and prickly heat. Betnovate-N cream contains betamethasone valerate and neomycin sulfate. 1, 2

As per a senior police officer, a team of the crime branch came to know through various inputs that many duplicate cosmetics and counterfeit medicinal products are being manufactured by some units in the Ghulabi Bagh area.

The officer said that a raid was conducted at plot number 99, Gulabi Bagh Industrial Area, where illegal manufacturing was going on.

From that factory, police recovered four cartons of tubes filled with cream. Each carton was found to contain 550 tubes, which is approximately 2,200 total filled tubes. Other raw materials and heavy instruments for the production of tubes were also seized.

At least 57 cartons containing empty tubes of Betnovate-N cream were found, each containing 1,200 tubes, which is approximately 68,000 empty tubes retrieved from the illegal unit, the officials said.

Avan Monga, 45, is the owner of that fake factory. Before starting this unit, Avan was involved in the manufacturing of unbranded medications with his brother. Afterward, he established his own factory and initiated the production of duplicate medicinal products for various companies. Police found in an investigation that Avan had been running this fake drug factory since last year. Moreover, the owner had extended this business to the outer Delhi area as well.

The senior officer said that efforts are being made to unearth this whole chain.

A similar case occurred in October, when the Dehradun police arrested two men and recovered a large quantity of fake medications and raw materials. They established a fake drug manufacturing factory in Makdoompur village in Haridwar and used it to purchase raw materials from a Bombay-based company. They would then manufacture adulterated drugs at the factory and supply them to cities like Delhi, Lucknow, and Kolkata from their company.

Another incident happened in December when the Mumbai Police raided a local pharmaceutical company's office in Uttar Pradesh's Agra. According to Mumbai police sources, the Agra-based company allegedly supplied spurious Orofer ferric carboxymaltose (FCM) injections to a Delhi-based pharmaceutical firm, which in turn supplied them in Mumbai, where they were found to be fake.

This type of incident raises questions over regular surveys of the manufacturing and storage facilities of these pharma factories to ensure that they are manufacturing and selling quality drugs to the public.

References:

1. https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/consumers/cmi/b/betnovate.pdf

2. https://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-4897-722/betamethasone-valerate-topical/betamethasone-valerate-topical/details

(Inpit from various media sources)

(Rehash/Komal Bhoi)