The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has put a temporary ban on the medicines manufactured by Helax Health Care, a company based in Haryana, which has a distributor at Elphinstone Road in Bopodi and it has seized medicines worth Rs 90,000 from the company distributor.

According to Joint commissioner of FDA Sanjay Patil the action followed complaints regarding discoloured and not properly packaged medicines.

The FDA has sent the samples of the medicines to a laboratory in Mumbai. It has informed medical stores to withdraw the products of Helax and also informed the district offices of FDA to carry out the same in the respective districts.

"Following a tip-off, we raided the branch office of the company located in Bopodi and confiscated goods worth Rs 90,000. Helax manufactures tablets, syrups and vaccines. We had received information that the medicines that are brought into the market under Helax Health Care brand are not up to the mark. There have been complaints that the medicines look discoloured and do not weigh as per the printed information. We also found that the medicines had not been packaged as per the regular standards. After this, we have seized medicines worth Rs 90,000 from the company." Patil said.

S B Patil, a drug inspector with FDA said, "We had issued license to Helax only about six months ago. After receiving complaints, we raided the Helax distributor on Elphinstone Road in Bopodi and seized goods worth Rs 60,000. Another cache of medicines worth Rs 30,000 was seized from Ashok Medical store located in some other area. We have also asked for the sale details from these two units so that we could trace the medicines."

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