In a bid to keep tab on the illegal sale and purchase of habit forming drugs, the FDA (Food and Drugs administration) is conducting the regular checking of wholesale and Retail sale Drugs Licensees under which FDA team of Amritsar had seized the approximately 12 lakh tablets of Tramadol, having MRP value of approximately Rs. 85 Lakhs under the provisions of Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. It was disclosed here today by the Health & Family Welfare Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu in a press communiqué.The Minister revealed that a team consisting of Miss Baleen Kaur, Drugs Control Officer, Amritsar and Karun Sachdev Zonal Licensing Authority (Drugs) had visited the firm M/s Ravenbhel Pharmaceuticals (p) Ltd, 7-A, Baba Budha Ji Avenue, G.T. Road of Amritsar for course of routine inspections and found that the firm was bearing Valid Drugs Sales Licenses by virtue of which Allopathic Drugs could be stocked for sale and distribution but firm have not got the special permission to stock such a large number of tablets of ‘Tramadol’. The said firm had applied for such permission but same has not yet been issued by concerned licensing Authority. He said that notice under Rule 66(1) of Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 has been issued for taking action against the firm and the further investigation is under process.
Underlining the action taken against the wholesale and Retail sale Drugs Licensees those were violating the restrictions laid by the state government, the Minister said that 701 numbers of licenses had been suspended out of which 600 licenses suspended due to general contravention and 101 licences had been suspended for the contravention regarding habit forming drugs. He said that 2 licenses had also been cancelled during the January to November, 2019. Similarly, 87 numbers of prosecution orders had been issued against defaulters and 102 prosecutions launched by the FDA, Punjab. Balbir Singh Sidhu reiterated that Captain Amarinder Singh led Punjab Government is committed to weed out drugs menace from the state and to achieve this target, strict action is being taken against the violators and defaulters adding that the State Government had restricted the sale of eight types of drugs in the state i.e drugs formulations containing the narcotics drugs namely diphenoxylate, dextropropoxyphene, codeine and their salts, psychotropic substances buprenorphine, pentazocine, nitrazepam and their salts and tramadol & tapentadol in solid oral dosage forms. He said that wholesaler and retailer has to obtain the special permission from concerned licensing Authority before stocking the said drugs and only those chemists are allowed for it whose shops are inside or outside the hospitals.