3 pharma firms under scanner for Gupta links

In a showcause notice served on each of them early this month, the Drug Controller Officer of Uttarachal has accused them of selling crores of unlabelled pills containing Schedule ‘G’, ‘H’ and ‘X’ drugs to R.K. Gupta. Further, the complaint filed with the NDPS court in Dehra Dun says the clinic managed to get narcotics, including morphine and steroids, from the companies in 1998. The UP Drugs Inspector exposed the clinic following a raid the same year but Gupta got away with a fine of Rs 250.

The three companies are yet to file their replies but claim they were supplying the drugs to authorised doctors including B.M. Soni who worked a the clinic as consultant from 2001 to 2003 and Vinod Kumar Kukreti, from 2003-04.

‘‘The companies can supply these drugs to the certified doctors under the law of the land and we don’t have any concern with how Neeraj Clinic is using these drugs. We had nothing to do with R.K. Gupta, as we made our deals with B.M. Soni and Vinod Kumar Kukreti on behalf of Neeraj Clinic,’’ a top-ranking official of RKG Pharma said.

Soni, who had co-authored a book on epilepsy with R.K. Gupta in 2001, however, has washed his hands of the matter. ‘‘I snapped my relationship with R.K. Gupta a year ago when I discovered that he was a quack,’’ Soni said.

Records with the Uttaranchal police show the companies sold the drugs, listed under psychotropic substances, over several years. Two tablets containing 30 mg of phenobarbitone or phenytoin can make a person unconscious and work as a sedative for a couple of days.

Over the years, the clinic’s business boomed as did its drug supplies. In 2002-2003, these companies supplied 1.72 crore phenobarbitone tablets (524 kg) and 1.62 crore phenytoin pills (1,628 kg).