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Industry and trade leaders in Telangana offer full support to DCA for strong actions against illegal activities
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Peethaambaran Kunnathoor, Chennai
April 23 , 2024
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Pharmaceutical industry and trade leaders in Telangana have offered full support to the state drugs control administration (DCA) for its stringent actions against illegal and unethical business practices continuing in pharma and health sectors.
Commenting on the recent raid in a blood storage centre and seizure of blood components such as packed RBC bags, plasma bags and labels of single donor platelets from the Asian Blood Centre in Malkajgiri district, the pharma industry and trade leaders said their associations will give full support to the DCA to book the culprits in the industry.
In the raid conducted two days ago, apart from the RBC and plasma bags, the officials seized account books, sale books of the whole blood and blood components, labels of single donor platelets and blood requisition forms. Sources from the DCA informed Pharmabiz that the raiding officials found that the blood bank, Asian Blood Centre, was illegally preparing blood components such as packed RBC, plasma and supplying them to the patients.
Asian Blood Centre is a unit of the Asian Health Foundation, located at Plot No. 2, Shanti Surabhi Complex, Dr AS Rao Nagar Cross Roads, Medchal-Malkajgiri District.
The blood bank centre was permitted by the drugs control department only to carry out activities including collection, storage, processing and distribution of 'Whole Human Blood'. The centre was not authorized to prepare and distribute blood components such as single donor platelets, packed RBC, plasma, etc, the office of the director general of the DC department informed Pharmabiz.
Single donor platelets are prepared through a process called ‘Plateletpheresis’. Asian Blood Centre does not have the capability to carry out the apheresis process because it does not have equipment such as an 'apheresis machine' or a 'blood cell separator'. Blood centre technician J Ravi Kumar revealed during the raid that single donor platelets were illegally procured from other blood banks and were being supplied to the patients in an unauthorized manner.
The director general of the DCA, VB Kamalasan Reddy said the blood components prepared and supplied in an unauthorized manner may fail to meet the quality standards prescribed in the drugs rules. Such products may have serious consequences on patients' health also. He said drug inspectors T Shiva Teja and B Praveen were among the officers who carried out the raid. Further investigation shall be carried out and action shall be taken as per the law against all the offenders.
Meanwhile, S K Janimiya, pharma industry leader and former chairman of the Telangana state board of the Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association (TS IDMA), said the pharma industry will not support any illegal activity and whoever commits illegal or illegitimate or unethical activity in the industry, irrespective of his positions he should be punished. In such cases, the industry is always with the department.
The pharma trade leader, R Srinivas said, although the blood banks and their operations are not connected with the chemists’ community, we give full support to the director general of the DCA for his continuous actions against unlawful business activities in the pharma sector. He said the raid and seizure should be continued until the market is cleansed completely.
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