Action against cure-all ayurveda companies

KOCHI: The Drugs Control Department on Thursday initiated prosecution steps against ayurveda majors - Indulekha, Dhatri and Sreedhareeyam - for misleading the public through false claims and advertisements.The Drugs Control officials took the initiative after conducting search operations at the stores of wholesale dealers and the manufacturing units, State Drugs Controller Satheesh Kumar said.Prosecution steps were initiated in all districts against these companies for flouting the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954.According to the Act, no product should be sold with false claims, he said.Steps would be taken to cancel the licences of the offenders, he said.Drugs worth about Rs 51 lakh were seized from the wholesale stockists and the manufacturing units, he said.Indulekha Bringha Complete Hair Care Oil, Dhathri Fair Skin Cream and Sreedhareeyam Smartlean are the products that were carrying misleading or false statements, he said.Stating that the initiative was taken in public interest, Satheesh Kumar said a plethora of complaints were received from different quarters saying that the advertisements/statements of many ayurvedic drugs are misleading the public and that these drugs are being sold at exorbitant prices.Meanwhile, Dhatri MD Dr Saji Kumar alleged that it was only a planned operation.“An allopathy mafia is behind this and we will not be affected,” he said.Sajikumar also said that they had the right to advertise and that the people would not know about the products unless they were advertised.In Thiruvananthapuram, the raid was conducted by a team comprising Special Intelligence Inspector Santhosh K Mathew, drug inspectors Vinodh V, Sudhir Babu, Moniveena and Geetha M C.Assistant Drugs Controller, Ernakulam, M R Pradeep, Intelligence Bureau inspector Jayan Philip, drug inspectors Aju Joseph, Jaya V Dev, P Y John, Shaji P H, Nishith M C, Gladis P and Vinayan M P took part in the raids held in Kochi.