RAIPUR: The drugs, suspected to have caused the 13 deaths in Chhatisgarh last week, were bought by the state government from a pharma company it had black listed two years ago for supplying medicine of “suspicious quality” .
The government had registered a case against Mahawar Pharmaceuticals and had banned seven medicines it supplied.
The firm had supplied an antibiotic which was used during the surgeries which left 13 dead and many more still struggling. The company also owns a small factory running from a residential area in the city.
Trying to pass the buck, the State Health Minister who also hails from Bilaspur where the deaths took place, says not his government but local administration had purchased the drugs at individual level.
But local health officials contested his claim saying the government had been purchasing drugs from the firm for over ten years. Besides, the State Food and Drug Controller had also awarded Mahavir Pharma a good medical practice certificate last year.
A report on Indian Express quoted Raipur IG G P Singh saying, “a case under Section 420 has been filed against the company, They were registered as manufacturers, but it was found that they did not manufacture here. They merely brought drugs from elsewhere and packaged here. They did not maintain many records either.”
The state police have arrested the directors of the firm Mahesh Mahavar and his son Sumit Mahavar as the Food and Drug Controller sealed the company’s premises. Meanwhile, the company has issued a statement saying it had never received any complaint about the antibiotic that it had supplied for the Bilaspur camp.
