Lucknow: The food safety and drug administration department (FSDA) undertook a special statewide campaign to crack down on the sale of substandard and suspected medicines. As part of the campaign, intensive inspections were carried out at more than 50 pharmaceutical manufacturing establishments across 11 districts. Serious irregularities were detected at seven units where manufacturing and sale were immediately stopped under the relevant provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.A govt spokesperson said that as part of the campaign, 17 manufacturing units were inspected in Kanpur, nine in Meerut, eight in Muzaffarnagar, four in Saharanpur, three each in Hapur and Mathura, two in Moradabad, and one each in Agra, Kasganj, Rampur and Bijnor. FSDA picked up 55 finished goods and 30 samples of raw materials for quality verification.He said that during the inspections, several irregularities were found, including inadequate arrangements to prevent cross-contamination, lack of proper facilities for microbiological testing, discrepancies between records and actual stock, shortage of essential testing equipment, absence of temperature-control arrangements, non-functional HVAC/AHU systems, lack of facilities as per GMP standards, serious deficiencies related to sanitation and absence of required technical personnel.“In view of these serious deficiencies, immediate action was taken against M/s Safecon Agra Life Sciences Pvt Ltd, Ideal Healthcare Ltd, New Shakti Pharmaceuticals, M/s William Organic, Astron Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd, M/s Par Pharmaceuticals and Cathe Healthcare Pvt Ltd. Show-cause notices will be issued to units found closed or non-functional for a long period during the inspections,” the official added.
