The Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA), in the last three months, has suspended over 70 manufacturing licenses in the state.
Dr Hemant Koshia, Commissioner, FDCA Gujarat, said, “In the last three months, we have raided the premises of five manufacturers who were involved in manufacturing hand sanitisers under different brands and categories. We have seized raw material, finished packaging etc. worth over Rs 40 lakhs. However, after testing the samples some of them were found fake. Moreover, a few of the manufacturers are guilty of making these sanitisers without the manufacturing license.”
“Besides this, on a random basis, we also collected a total of 362 samples of hand sanitisers from hospitals, pharmacy stores and manufacturers’ sites. After carrying out the analysis of these collected samples, we realised that 67 samples failed quality tests in our laboratories. Of the 67 failed samples, 36 samples were from a single firm called Nirav Healthcare and was largely supplying to government institutions. Following the lab report, we have suspended all their licenses and the firm got blacklisted from the state government’s procurement list as well,” informed Koshia.
He elaborated, “To all the firms whose samples have failed, we are in the process of issuing official notices. We will be taking strict actions against them and based on their cognizable offence, action will be initiated.”
Presently, the state has the capacity to manufacture two crore litres of hand sanitiser every day. Till now, the state FDCA has issued manufacturing licenses to 646 firms and 3812 product licenses. “In the pre-COVID-19 times, the state FDCA had issued only 228 manufacturing licenses, the number increased by nearly three to four times in less than four months. Earlier, in the state, we had 41 allopathy, 123 cosmetics and 64 Ayush manufacturers involved in manufacturing of hand sanitisers,” informed Koshia.