The Drug Enforcement Wing of Karnataka’s Food Safety and Drugs Administration (FSDA), in coordination with local police, has busted a major counterfeit pharmaceutical operation running inside an unlicensed farmhouse near the Bidadi toll gate in Ramanagara district. Authorities seized spurious, relabelled, and expired medicines alongside industrial packaging equipment valued at approximately ₹4.91 crore. Four individuals have been arrested in connection with the racket.
Acting on specific intelligence, enforcement officers raided the farmhouse premises in Kurubara Karenahalli, where operators were allegedly procuring lower-cost pharmaceuticals from manufacturing units in Himachal Pradesh and Telangana. The drugs were subsequently transferred into fresh vials, stamped with forged labels, and repackaged to mimic high-value multinational and imported pharmaceutical brands,includingPfizer before being sold at inflated prices.
Among the seized items were 5,640 vials of CEFIAVIGENT 2.5 1 Injection (valued at ₹3.38 crore), 1,531 vials of HIZLAM Injectables (₹52.24 lakh), 470 vials of Xavitaz injection (₹27.49 lakh), 264 vials of EMBLAVEO (₹20.59 lakh), and 30 boxes of expired medicines worth ₹35 lakh. Critical-care and ICU broad-spectrum injectable antibiotics were recovered during the bust. Officers also confiscated injection-filling machinery, vial caps, rubber stoppers, forged stamps, and counterfeit labels with non-functional QR codes.
According to officials, the operation was running without any valid drug manufacturing or distribution licenses, violating key provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. An FIR has been registered at the Tavarekere Police Station. Authorities are blocking all associated batch numbers on the state FDA portal and sending drug samples for rigorous laboratory analysis to determine chemical composition, potency, and sterility while tracing downstream supply networks to protect patient safety.
Written by: Pragna Biswas
Graphics by: Pramit Hazra
