The Maharashtra state food and drug administration (FDA) is likely to take action against VHB Life Sciences Inc alleging the company has tampered with labels of some of its drugs manufactured on a contract basis. However, as the drugs seized by the FDA from the Rs 265-crore VHB showed standard quality, FDA is unlikely to take any stringent action. A year back, the Andhra Pradesh FDA received complaints about the labeling of the pack of an antibiotic drug, Maxinem injection 500 mg, marketed by VHB. During enquiry, VHB said the drugs were manufactured by Orchid Pharma through its contract manufacturing partner, Yeluri Formulations, Hyderabad. But Yeluri informed the FDA that the particular batch of injection was not manufactured by them. Dhanraj Kamatkar, commissioner, FDA, told FE, ?Once the investigative report comes, we will decide on the action to be taken.? Experts say that if the company does not disclose where it manufactured the drug, it can be treated as spurious. VHB spokesperson said, ?Maxinem is manufactured by a Chennai-based firm and all manufacturing related queries are handled by the them.?
An Orchid spokesperson said, ?FDA has examined our facilities and warehouses and found the products supplied to be fully quality-compliant.?
