Logistics company told to explain why 48m Panadol tablets were found in its warehouse

Sindh’s directorate of drug control has started legal action against a logistics company in Karachi on charges of hoarding 48 million tablets of paracetamol, a common painkiller which is not available in the market due to a row over its pricing between manufacturers and the government, officials said on Tuesday.

“Under Section 21 of the Drugs Act 1976, today with the permission from Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho, the Director of Drug Control has issued a notice to M/S Connect Logistics (Pvt) Ltd to produce a bill/invoice with warranty within seven days for over 48 million Panadol tablets of different batches found in their warehouse on Hawkesbay Road last week. We gave three to four days to the manufacturer to provide the required documents, but on their failure, the legal notice was issued,” an official of the provincial health department told The News.

Following a countrywide shortage of paracetamol amid dengue and malaria outbreaks across the country, authorities in Sindh had claimed to seize more that 48 million tablets of Panadol during a raid on a warehouse on Hawkesbay Road, suspecting the medicine was being hoarded to create an artificial shortage as the industry sought price hikes.

The health department official said they had sought other details, including the production timelines, invoices to prove their buyers and the reason behind its storage in such a huge quantity when the product was not available across the country.

“Instead of providing us the details, the manufacturer tried to influence the health department to release the stock. We have no intention to deprive the people of this essential medicine. but any wrongdoing cannot be tolerated,” said the official, who requested anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to media.

But the manufacturer of the medicine had claimed that the drug inspector of Sindh had raided a dispensing warehouse of the company from where the medicine was supposed to be sent to the entire country to meet the people’s requirement. “We firmly reject the claims related to hoarding Panadol intentionally to create a shortage. The stocks at this warehouse were intended to be released and distributed in the country in the normal course of business,” the manufacturer had said in a statement.

However, the health department is still seeking answers. The notice issued to the logistics company said: “Therefore, you are herein required to produce a bill/invoice with warranty of detained stocks on prescribed form-2A dated 15-09-2022 and disclose the name, complete address and other particulars of the manufacturer or other person from whom you had acquired/purchased drug in question and disclosed the period that since how long the stocks of drug in question were lying at your premises with complete plan of dispatch (if any), also produce authority letter issued in your favor by the market authorization holder for issuing warranty on their behalf within 07 days of receipt of this letter.”

Chairman Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association Qazi Mansoor Dilwar said this notice to the company would aggravate the situation and the availability of paracetamol would become more difficult.