COIMBATORE: As part of the State Government's drive against spurious drugs and also drugs sold after expiry date, teams from the Department of Drug Control seized over 250 bottles of cough syrup, suspecting that it was spurious.

Senior Drugs Inspector, Coimbatore Zone, N. Gunasekaran, who led the drive in the city and suburbs, said there was information that 5,000 bottles of the cough formula of a particular brand had been purchased by a wholesaler in Coimbatore. These had been distributed to some pharmacies in and around the city.

The official said 39 bottles were seized from the wholesaler and four of these were sent for analysis to the Drug Testing Laboratory in Chennai.

When asked what made the officials suspect that the drug was spurious, he said certain normal indications on the cap, such as the direction for opening the seal/cap and the name of the drug on it, were missing.

“As of now we cannot categorically say these bottles contain spurious cough formula. We can only say that there is a suspicion that it is spurious. But, only the tests can confirm this,” he said.

The team also seized 232 bottles of the cough formula from an outlet at Kuniamuthur, which had got these from the wholesaler. Four of these were sent to the laboratory for tests.

Courtesy - Hindu