Official sources said that the oestrogen levels in the company's oral contraceptive products failed to meet certain prescribed standards, forcing a total recall. "While the recall has been completed, the chargesheet is expected to be filed within the next fortnight," sources said. The completion of the recall indicates that consumers at large need not be unduely concerned.

Indications are that Eupharma Laboratories' chairman and managing director Ramanlal V Shah and another director who had been arrested in this connection, have been released on bail.

RV Shah told The Financial Express that the company had surrendered the licence for Mala-N and Mala-D and had stopped production in Mumbai. "We have closed down our plant in Mumbai owing to labour problems and certain other issues. We are now concentrating production at our Gujarat facility," he said.

On the reasons for the product recall, Shah said there had been some "misrepresentation" of facts by the plant manager who had been handling the situation. "He (the plant manager) has not turned up since," he said.

Shah, however, clarified that only one batch of the oral contraceptive did not, very marginally, meet the prescribed oestrogen limits. Details on this front could not be ascertained. He also said that the company may continue to supply Mala N & D from the Gujarat unit or even consider introducing its own brand.

Eupharma which had gone public in 1995 manufactures a range of products including antibiotic brands like Euplin, Neocyclin and Levocetin, antacid Roter and antipyretic Panadol.

The company's 1994-95 annual report indicates that institutional sales have been one of the key markets for the company's products. During that period, 10.80 million cycles of oral contraceptive pills, Mala-N and Mala-D, were supplied to the ministry of health and family welfare. In addition, substantial quantities of anti-TB drugs and oral rehydration salts were also supplied, the report adds.

Meanwhile, the Eupharma scrip which was hovering in the region of Rs 9 in August 1999, moved up to close at Rs 25 on Friday on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Volumes in the counter stood at 88,000.