Life-saving drugs meant for govt hospital seized, probe ordered

Patna: The govt has planned an extensive probe into the expensive life-saving drugs seized from a private house under Agamkuan police station in Patna. These drugs, with the sticker of Bihar Medical Services Infrastructure Corporation Limited (BMSICL), were meant to be distributed for free at govt hospitals.

The health department on Wednesday said a thorough investigation will be done and people involved in the nexus will be punished.

“It is a serious matter. We will go to a logical end and continue with the raids to end the problem from the root,” said health secretary Lokesh Kumar Singh on Wednesday.

The drug controller team of the health department, along with the local police, on Monday conducted a routine raid at a private residence under Agamkuan locality.

What raised concern was the expensive life-saving drugs, meant to be supplied to govt hospitals, that were found in the raid.

Sources said they seized expensive drugs like Immunoglobulin, Albumin and other medicines like Prazosin, Buprenorphine, and anti-venoms. All these medicines had the sticker of BMSIL, meaning they were supposed to be sent to the govt health institutes and distributed free of cost. In the raid, 35 different kinds of life-saving drugs and 13 different types of drugs falling under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances were seized.

“It is being investigated as to how and from where these drugs came, as well as the people involved,” said an official involved in the raid.

He further said the price of the seized drugs was yet to be calculated, and they expected it to cross over a crore rupees. “Since the drugs were meant to be distributed for free, the exact price was not mentioned on the labels. We are calculating that,” he said, adding these were the drugs seized from one room, while another room in the same building is yet to be checked as more drugs are kept there.

Former state IMA president Dr Rajiv Ranjan Prasad said some of these drugs cost between Rs6,000 and Rs15,000 for one injection. “One finds scarcity of such expensive drugs in govt hospitals. What is meant for the poor to be given for free is never available to them. This is the wastage of taxpayers’ money,” said Dr Prasad.

Particularly pointing towards the anti-venoms, which are given in case of snakebite and are in huge demand in the monsoon, Dr Prasad said these too are black-marketed and local quacks sell them to the needy at exorbitant prices. “These are sold for around Rs2,000 to Rs3,000,” he added.

Dr Ajay Kumar, member of the national IMA action committee and former state IMA president, said some of the drugs that were seized are such that he had never seen in govt hospitals. “Drugs business is highly uncontrolled in the country,” he said.