Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has decided to constitute a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the suspected network involved in manufacturing and distributing counterfeit medicines and branded pharmaceutical products, health minister U T Khader said on Wednesday.
Police and drug control officials jointly inspected the premises and confirmed the presence of counterfeit medicines,” he said. The decision comes after authorities uncovered a suspected fake medicine manufacturing and packaging unit at a farmhouse near C K Thandya village, close to Dodderi in Bengaluru South district. “Medicines from other states and countries were allegedly brought here and labels of multinational companies were put on them before they were sold. Even ICU medicines have been counterfeited. We received information about suspicious movement of vehicles and boxes being loaded at a farmhouse near Dodderi village. “During the inspection, we found medicines suspected to be counterfeit and immediately informed the drug control department. “The prime accused, Prashanth, is currently abroad. We are making efforts to secure his arrest at the earliest.
We need to find out which hospitals and medical stores received these products and whether patients were affected,” he said. Our beat staff Shivraju and Raghu alerted us, following which our team conducted a raid and uncovered the suspected fake medicine racket,” South district superintendent of police Srinivas Gowda said. The case has been registered based on a complaint from the drug control department and the investigation is continuing,” Gowda said.
