TNN

Bangalore, Mar 23: This scam is more dreadful than cancer. The state health department has unearthed an anti-cancer drug racket where crucial medicines for treatment of the disease were not only illegally manufactured, but re-bottled and sold after expiry dates.

Shockingly, some of the illegal drugs manufactured were not traced at all. Initial investigation has proved that these drugs have hit the market and consumed by patients. “It is difficult for us to assess at this stage if there has been loss of lives due to consumption of these spurious drugs. Since the drugs have been sold not just in Karnataka, we have to involve neighbouring states as well,’’ official sources told The Times of India.

Though section 28 (A) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules allows manufacturers to use the facility of another company to produce the drug, it must be clearly labelled along with the batch names of the drugs. “But during investigation we were shocked to find that the companies whose names were labelled on the anti-cancer drug had not manufactured that batch of drugs at all. As of now there are four such companies whose names the mafia has used illegally. All the companies denied having produced these anti-cancer drugs,’’ sources said.

Last week, a team of officers from Maharashtra came to Bangalore for investigations. The department is doing a thorough inquiry into the number of outlets that sell anti-cancer drugs.