Flour balls for medicines!
They target medicines that are widely sold in the market, like Naproxen-Plus, Pantonex, Seclo, Monas and Finix. And they make the fake versions using flour and semolina.
Their next step is to lure pharmacy owners, which becomes easier as they halve the prices for them.
And just like that, their fake medicines have successfully penetrated the market.
This is how several organised syndicates are allegedly making and selling fake medicines.
The Detective Branch's Lalbagh division has made over 50 arrests in connection to the syndicates. Fourteen cases have been filed so far against the arrestees, Razib Al Masud, DB deputy commissioner, told this correspondent yesterday.
Interestingly, they have permission from the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA). However, the permission is for manufacturing Unani medicines.
Fake medicines saw a rise in the markets after Unani medicines were out in tablet formats, claimed Razib.
Contacted, Ayub Hossain, director of DGDA, told The Daily Star yesterday that law enforcers are suspecting that those who have taken permission for Unani medicine are making the fake ones.
"We have a strong monitoring system and we take legal action whenever we find any anomalies," said Ayub, also the spokesperson of DGDA. "We coordinate with law enforcers against such illegal activities as well and share information," added Ayub, also the DGDA spokesperson.
BIGGEST HAUL TO DATE
During a special drive on Sunday, DB busted a fake medicine factory in Cumilla and recovered 22 lakh fake medicines from the factory and its warehouse in Savar, making it the biggest drive in recent times.
The arrestees are Morshed Alam Shaon (35), owner of Himalaya Laboratories; Kabir Hossain (44) from Savar's warehouse; Al Amin Chanchal (35), distributor in Cumilla; And Md Amin Chanchal (35), who was involved with the packaging process; Nazim Uddin (42), caretaker of the godown; and operators and workers Md Touhid (28), Ainul Islam (32), Md Sagar (19), Md Abir (21), Md Rubel (23), and Md Parvez (32).
Regarding the drive, AKM Hafiz Akter, DB's additional commissioner, said the arrestees were making fake medicines of nine local and a foreign pharmaceutical companies.
They also packaged the fake medicines with foil paper, leaving no doubts about their authenticity.
Police recovered a consignment from courier service, leading them to the warehouse. None of the arrestees, on either the sender or receiver end of the packages, managed to show any valid document and eventually admitted that they were fakes, according to DB officials.
NO TWO PEOPLE KNEW THE OTHER
Investigators said the syndicate used to maintain a cut-out system (with one team remaining in the dark about the manufacturer) to penetrate the market with the fake medicines.
DB official Razib said the arrestees from the drive on Sunday used to store the fake medicines in the warehouse in Savar.
They would then target unregistered pharmacies in remote areas.
"From the warehouse to the distribution end, only two individuals could be familiar with each other in each step. The manufacturer never meets the distributor to keep their identity hidden," he added.
Once the order was placed, the manufacturer and the warehouse controller would send the medicines to given addresses through courier service.
They would offer Tk 5-8 for medicines that authentic companies would sell to pharmacies at Tk 10-15. Pharmacies would buy these medicines at a cheaper rate and sell them to customers at market prices, yielding them a higher profit.
"Right now, it's quite difficult to say how many people were involved with the operation," said Razib. However, they are currently investigating the matter, he added.
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