Gurgaon: The investigation into the blood pressure (BP) medicine racket, which was uncovered in the city, has expanded to Uttarakhand.The food and drug administration (FDA) has traced the suspected manufacturing source to Roorkee, after busting an interstate supply chain that allegedly routed the fake drugs through Lucknow before they reached Haryana, Delhi and other states.The fresh findings come a day after the FDA arrested two people and seized counterfeit Telma-AM tablets, a widely prescribed medicine for hypertension, from a medical store in Subhash Nagar.“On Monday, the two accused were produced before a local court, which remanded them to three days’ police custody,” said drug controller Suresh Kumar.According to the FDA’s preliminary probe, the counterfeit medicines were manufactured in Roorkee and supplied through Lucknow to Haryana, Delhi and several other states. Officials said the information emerged during the interrogation of the accused, and the investigation is continuing to verify the entire supply chain.The probe has also found that the Delhi-based wholesale supplier, Shri Balaji Pharma, from whom the medicines were procured, was allegedly operating without the mandatory drug licence. Officials said scrutiny of purchase and sale records also revealed several forged invoices.The FDA is now trying to identify the manufacturing unit in Roorkee, warehouses and other people involved in the network. “Every link in the supply chain is being investigated and strict legal action will be taken against all those found involved,” district drug controller Amandeep Chauhan said.Chauhan said, “No adverse event linked to the seized batch has been reported so far.” However, he cautioned that counterfeit medicines may fail to control a patient’s blood pressure, potentially exposing patients to serious health risks if consumed over time.The department has advised consumers to buy medicines only from authorised pharmacies, insist on a bill for every purchase, and immediately inform the drug control department if they suspect any medicine to be counterfeit or notice anomalies in its packaging.Meanwhile, a stock of 560 more strips was recovered along with from accused Dwivedi.
