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Tuesday, 1 July 2014 02:05 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Media reports published on 28 May said that the CAA had seized over Rs. 500 million worth of expired pharmaceuticals from a warehouse in Attidiya. Reports stated that the expiry dates of the medicinal drugs had been fraudulently changed for repackaging and selling.
The CAA claimed at the time that it was one of the biggest raids that it had conducted.
However, speaking to the media on Friday, Harcourts claimed that its warehouse in Attidiya was one among several that were unexpectedly raided by the CAA, which it also claimed had no jurisdiction in the matter.
“The CAA raided several Harcourts retail outlets on 26 May and found nothing wrong, at which point they conducted a raid on the main stores complex on Attidiya Road in Ratmalana. They didn’t find anything wrong at this point either,” a spokesperson for the company stated.
The officers questioned those at the store during the initial inspection regarding a large stock of expired goods, which Harcourts claims was stored in a separate room demarcated as the ‘Expired Section’.
According to the guidelines for proper storage of pharmaceuticals, the Ministry of Health requires “expired/damaged/quality suspect (withheld) pharmaceuticals to be stored separately in a demarcated place”.
Furthermore, the guidelines state that such items must be listed out and once a fair quantity of expired items is collected, the wholesaler should inform the Drugs Regulatory Authority while the expired stocks have to be disposed of as directed by the Authority under the supervision of authorised officers.
Harcourts Ltd. Chairman Ahamed Rheyas stated that this procedure was in place because drug companies were not allowed to dispose of the pharmaceuticals themselves.
“There are a lot of environmental issues to take into consideration when disposing of these chemicals so we are not allowed to do it. Instead, once the stockpile of expired medicinal drugs reaches a weight of around four to five tons, we hand it over to Holcim, which in turn disposes of the medicinal drugs in Puttalam,” he said.
Despite these conditions being met, the CAA officers returned the next day (27 May) with several media crews and had raided the ‘Expired Section,’ which Harcourts claims contained stocks of discarded medicinal drugs that were awaiting destruction under the supervision of the Cosmetics and Drugs Regulatory Authority (CDDA) of the Ministry of Health. The CAA officers had also found a single blister pack of medicine which had a misprinting from the manufacturer. Harcourts claimed that this was still not an issue according to the guidelines because it was in the expiry section and was not displayed for sale. The store also held paperwork to prove that the medication was discarded due to an error in printing.
“The CAA conducted the raid with no authorisation from the CDDA, which is the authority under whose purview the stores fall. We don’t know why we were targeted in this manner,” he stated. One month since the incident, Harcourts now claims that no official charges have yet been brought forward against it by the CAA. However, it claims that the damage the “media circus” has caused to its reputation is impossible to estimate.
“They told the media that we held expired stocks worth over Rs. 500 million with the intent of reselling. We don’t even have stocks worth Rs. 500 million on sale,” the Chairman claimed.
He added that if the CAA’s allegations were based on factual evidence, the company would already have been taken to court.
Harcourts even pointed to the attack on one of its drug stores in Dehiwala on 15 June, calling it symptomatic of the aftermath caused by the CAA’s actions. Displaying video footage of the violent attack on the store and its staff, a spokesperson for the company stated: “No one would do this without a reason.”Also addressing the media, Attorney-at-Law Asela Rekewa who represents Harcourts stated that the CAA was yet to inform the company of the allegations against it.
Harcourts also intends to file action against the CAA for damages as it finds the allegations baseless and unsubstantiated.
Pic by Daminda Harsha Perera
