The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday conducted searches at three places in Vasai and found that Pharma Products Pvt Limited was manufacturing medicines at the places without obtaining any license for manufacturing medicines.
The seized Ayurvedic medicines, raw materials, packaging material, labels and pouches are worth around Rs 141 crore. Further investigation is underway.
“The Food and Drug Administration conducted searches at three locations in Vasai area of Palghar on July 10 and found that Gaharwal Pharma Products Ltd, which holds a license for manufacturing Ayurvedic medicines in Haryana, was in fact manufacturing medicines at Vasai without obtaining a license to manufacture medicines at this location, citing details of the Haryana licence,” the Food and Drug Administration, Mumbai, Maharashtra, said in a press release.
The FDA said it was also learnt that the loan licence obtained in Haryana was returned to the state licensing authority, Ayush Department, on May 14, 2024, but drugs continued to be manufactured in Vasai under the same licence thereafter.
The FDA further said, “Drugs manufactured in Haryana were shown to be sold to Onkar Pharma Ltd, Jalandhar, Punjab, but Onkar Pharma Ltd was operating from Vasai and was distributing the medicines from this location using invoices with a Jalandhar address. Further, some medicines were found with a manufacturing address of Gaharwal Pharma Ltd, Navgarh Vasai, Palghar district, which was shown to have been manufactured in January 2024 and the license granted to Rushabh Medicines at this location was revoked in 2022.”
The FDA said the seized Ayurvedic medicines, raw materials, machinery, packaging material, labels and pouches were worth around Rs 141 crore.
Similar searches were conducted recently in March 2024 and March 2021 at the company’s sister companies M/s Rushabh Medicine, Navghar Vasai (E) which found allopathic medicines among Ayurvedic medicines in the government analysis report and were subsequently booked in court and their licences subsequently cancelled, the press release said.
The FDA said further investigation is ongoing and appropriate legal action will be taken against the manufacturer once the investigation is completed.
According to the FDA, the Ayurvedic medicines were seized by Drugs Inspector Palghar Yogendra Pol, Nitin Aher and Drugs Inspector Thane Kailash Kapekar, who were assisted by Deputy Commissioner Prakash Muhanwar, Mukund Donglikar, Deepka Mulpure, Rohit Rathod of Thane, Mahesh Gadekar of Palghar, Umesh Garote, Drugs Inspectors Kishore Rajnee, Shubhangi Bhujbal, Nitin Aher, Rakesh Edlawar, Yogendra Pol, Pravin Raut, Poonam Salgaonkar, Rajshree Shinde, Sunil Gawali, Premdas Sakre and Kailash Kapekar.
The search was assisted by IB Mumbai Deputy Commissioner VR Ravi and IB Mumbai Narcotics Inspector Shashikant Yadav.
The FDA said the searches were conducted on instructions received from FDA Commissioner Abhimanyu Kale, FDA Joint Director Vigilance Dr Rahul Khade, FDA Joint Director Thane Narendra Supe and FDA Greater Mumbai Joint Director Vijay Jadhav.
