Reeja was on a hand sanitiser-scouting mission the other day in her home town of Tirur in Malappuram district. After many unsuccessful attempts, she could buy a 250 ml bottle for Rs 200. However, the purchase left Reeja disappointed because the product was poorly packaged and there was no mention of its composition. When she brought the issue to the notice of the shop owner, she got a cold response: "You can either buy it or leave." She opted for the the first as she had to undertake a train journey to Kochi the next day.
Reeja then visited manufacturer's website only to find that it was non-existent. Then she called the customer care number of the Palakkad-based manufacturer printed on the label. The person who picked call gave her another contact number. In a few minutes, both the numbers were found to be switched off.
Hand sanitisers are the much sought-after products in Kerala in the wake of the coronavirus scare. This has led to scarcity, giving room for fake or substandard products. That is not all. These misbranded, unlabelled and low quality products are being sold at exorbitant prices.
The state drugs control department recently confiscated hand sanitisers worth Rs 2 lakh from 12 unlicensed companies for violating the norms of the Medicinal and Toilet Preparations Act, 1955.
“Fake hand sanitisers have been seized during our surprise raids at Kozhikode, Kannur, Malappuram, Thrissur, Palakkad, Kottayam, Ernakulam and Alappuzha districts," informed a top official at the department.
The Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 allows the drugs control department officials to take the fake manufacturers into custody and produce them before the judicial magistrate along with the seized samples, analysis report and supporting documents.
Cashing in on people's desperation
Manju, a drugs inspector from Alappuzha, said people are buying hand sanitisers without checking the product name and content these days. "Fake manufacturers are cashing in on people’s desperation. The products we seized from manufacturing units and drug stores have no labels, license or proper details," she said.
Technically, hand sanitizer is a drug. Rules stipulate that drugs should be sold following standard labelling and it should contain name of the brand, address and contact details of the manufacturer, expiry date, ingredients with percentage of content, warnings, batch number and manufacturing license number. "It is illegal to sell drugs with false claims or fake labelling,” said Manju.
Sanitisers from cosmetic producers
A manufacturer in Palakkad district said he is overburdened with the huge demand. “We are trying to meet the demand,” he said.
When pointed out that his product does not contain composition details, he told that the unit does not have licence to produce drugs. “Mine is a cosmetic production unit. So we are not allowed to mention the composition as shown in drugs,” he said.
Can prepare, but don't sell
Many individuals and institutions are preparing alcohol-based sanitisers for non-commercial purposes at the time of emergency. Even the World Health Organisation has published a guide to local production of sanitiser in its website.
Does that make production illegal? A drugs control official said officials cannot prevent people from preparing sanitisers at this crisis time. "But selling those is a different thing," the official said.
