Tramadol smuggling co stripped of registration

HYDERABAD: The Guntur-based pharmaceutical firm, Safe Formulations Limited, was stripped of its registration by the Pharmaceuticals Exports Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) for smuggling Tramadol drugs to conflict-hit Sudan. The fighters use the drug to stay awake in war zones.
In the suspension letter to Safe Formulations, Pharmexcil director general R Uday Bhaskar, said, "On April 25, we sought details of licensees to whom Tramadol was supplied and details of importers and other documents.The firm responded on April 27, stating they will send a reply by April 28. However, the firm failed to provide the information within the deadline. Due to this, the membership of Safe Pharma with Pharmexcil has been cancelled with immediate effect."

In an earlier notice, the director general said, "It has come to our notice that central intelligence unit of Mumbai customs intercepted a consignment on February 27, and seized around 10 lakh Tramadol tablets of Rs 21 crore on way to a pharmacy firm in JUBA, South Sudan. The shipment was examined at the air cargo complex in Sahar and after investigation, it was found that Safe Formulations had sent the goods to First Wealth Solutions."
"Customs officials under Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act arrested Sangala Sridhar Reddy, director of Safe Formulations, a medicine manufacturing company based in Andhra Pradesh for allegedly supplying Tramadol to two other firms, which would allegedly smuggle them to several countries, including Sudan, via air cargo," stated the Pharmexcil director-general.
Safe Formulations Pvt Ltd was registered with Pharmexcil in 2008 as a small scale manufacturer.
Tramadol is a psychotropic substance and painkiller extensively abused the world over and was banned in India in April 2018. The probe also revealed Safe Formulations provided 3.31crore strips or 15,745kg tablets (not clear whether they were all Tramadol) to First Wealth Solutions in the past.
The consignment was allegedly mis-declared as Tamol-X-225, a calcium carbonate tablet, brought a bad reputation to the Indian pharma industry and is also likely to have an impact on the trust of global agencies on Indian pharma exports.