Sandesh Prabhudesai
3 Aug 1999
The Bharatiya Janata Party in Goa has unearthed a major racket of a
sub-standard anti-tuberculosis drug being supplied all over the country in the name of the
state-run Goa Antibiotics Pvt Ltd by some unknown people.
The Congress government was put on defence by Manohar Parrikar, the
state opposition leader, while exposing the issue in the Assembly. Suspecting a foul play,
the government has now proposed a house committee to probe into it.
Among several drugs, the GAPL supplies Ethambutol tablets of 800 mgs to
several ESI hospitals in the states like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal etc. GAPL
otherwise carries a fair name in the pharmaceutical market for supplying standard
medicines.
Parrikar’s calling attention motion however surprised the House
when health minister Francisco Sardinha admitted on the floor that the AP government had
found the Ethambutol tablets sub-standard supplied to them, two years ago.
The content of Ethambutol I.P. was found to be only 413.5 mgs (around
51 per cent) in the tablets supplied by GAPL’s Secunderabad depot. Even the
description in respect to score, cutline and breakline did not tally with the description
retained by the manufacturers in their master formula records here, stated Sardinha in a
six-page written reply.
Sardinha in his written reply attempted to hush up the matter stating
that subsequent sample tests carried out by Hyderabad-based Sipra Labs Pvt Ltd and
Mumbai-based Bee Pharmo Labs Pvt Ltd found the tablets to be of the standard quality and
the GAPL managing director had also challenged the AP government’s test report.
But he was caught unaware when Parrikar produced documents from the
Secunderabad depot of receiving 959 boxes when the GAPL from here had actually sent only
824 boxes in the same consignment. "It means someone has been adding bogus drugs to
the consignment in collusion with the higher ups", alleged the opposition leader.
The government was also silenced by Parrikar, asking why the then MD
did not register a complaint at the plant, as per the procedure, but preferred to shield
the culprits by sitting quite on the issue. The formal complaint was filed in May this
year, only after the new MD took over.
Sardinha however felt the matter was not serious since the AP
government’s Medical and Health Services had not taken suggestion seriously of its
Drugs Control Administration to blacklist the GAPL and not to place any order with them.
Contrary to this, the AP government had placed fresh order of 26 drug formulations,
including Ethambutol 400 mgs, he informed the House.
Intervening into the debate, chief minister Luizinho Faleiro however
suspected a sabotage, but requested not to defame the GAPL, which is struggling hard to
come out of red and expand its base into veterinary drugs and exports. The GAPL is
otherwise considered the white elephant as it cannot mange its expenses over the
over-recruited staff into the state-run venture.
While accepting a house committee under Sardinha’s chairmanship,
Parrikar also made it amply clear that he does not blame the GAPL for manufacturing
sub-standard drugs. But if the foul play is not investigated into, then its repercussions
would definitely defame the firm all over the country, he cautioned.
