A joint inspection carried by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation officer and Drug Controller officers of Haryana FDA found that an ink manufacturing firm, Yansefu Inks and Coating was manufacturing and selling hand sanitisers and disinfectants without a license.
On May 22 2020, Rakesh Dahiya, Senior Drug Controller Officer- Rewari Zone, Amandeep Chauhan, Drug Controller Officer- Rewari and Saurabh Mittal, Drug Inspector, CDSCO carried out the joint inspection. And the team uncovered 58 invoices worth Rs 24,76,024 issued to various firms in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi NCR region, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Yansefu Inks and Coating was selling hand sanitisers and disinfectants under the brands, Coflux Disinfectant Mist and Sarjoclean Disinfectant.
Dahiya said, “We had received the request from the firm Yansefu Inks and Coating for the grant of manufacturing license of hand cleanser/rub on Form-32 but later realised that they have already started manufacturing activities illegally without obtaining a licence.”
Chauhan informed, “We have communicated to respective drug monitoring authorities to intimate the firms whose sales invoices were found about the illegal manufacturing of these items. We have also collected six samples of finished goods which have been sealed for test and analysis.”
“Since the nationwide lockdown has been enforced by the Central Government, the State and Central drug authorities carry out joint inspections to grant new manufacturing licenses. And during the time of the inspection, the team found that the firm was involved in manufacturing drugs defined in 3(b) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 without possessing any valid drug manufacturing licence, informed Manmohan Taneja, Assistant State Drugs Controller, Haryana.
He highlighted that the number of raids has increased under Ashok Meena, Commissioner-FDA, Haryana. During the lockdown period, Haryana FDA raided four unlicensed manufacturing facilities viz; HiTech International of Manesar (Gurugram), JS Chemicals of Faridabad, Yansefu Inks and Coating, Bawal (Rewari), Jedar International of Pataudi. In another instance, they found that Nagerwar Nath, an individual was manufacturing hand sanitisers in his residential premises. He was using the name of Den Pharmaceutical of Ambala to do so.
And in all these cases, the State FDA authority has filed FIRs for manufacturing of spurious hand sanitisers and hand rubs. Four people have been arrested as well.
The FDA team of Hisar filed the first FIR in the country for overcharging of sanitisers under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. It was lodged a day after the government fixed the prices of sanitisers in the country.