Fake medicine factory busted

A mobile court backed up by Rab recovers a huge quantity of fake drugs at a home in Segunbagicha in the capital yesterday and arrested one person in this connection. Photo: Amran Hossain

A mobile court backed by Rab members yesterday busted a medicine factory in the capital's Topkhana for producing spurious antibiotics, including those for children, and jailed its owner for two years.
Owner Aminul Ehsan, 40, had been running the unauthorised business on the ground floor of his four-storey building over the last three years.
The mobile court led by Executive Magistrate of the Rapid Action Battalion Anwar Pasha also fined the owner Tk 2 lakh. If he fails to pay the fine, he will have to serve a sentence of three more months.
“Aminul used his experience as an employee of a pharmaceutical company and had been running the heinous business for 10 years,” the magistrate said.
The court began the drive around 10:30am and seized seven types of fake antibiotics worth around Tk 20 lakh and a significant amount of ingredients and labels.
Among them, there were fake medicines with labels of well-known drugs like Duracef, Navacef, Fixcef and Cefox of Navana Healthcare.
Navacef is a popular antibiotic for children, Anwar said.
The factory had been supplying medicines worth around Tk 1 lakh to the Mitford wholesale market every week. Aminul used to buy low quality powder as ingredients and get labels printed from local printing press.
“For an antibiotic that would cost around Tk 200, he spent only Tk 20 to 30 [to manufacture per piece of the drug],” Anwar quoted the factory owner as saying.
Didarul Alam, deputy director of the Rab-2, and Mohammad Azizullah, coordinator at the Directorate of Drugs Administration, were present during the drive.