Company owner arrested for importing substandard medicines remanded

The owner of the company, which allegedly used forged documents to import a batch of substandard human intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), has been remanded until November 15.

The accused known as Aruna Deepthi, who was arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), was produced before Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court earlier today.

On Monday, the court imposed overseas travel bans on the owner of the company, which is accused of using forged documents to import a batch of vials of substandard immunoglobulin, and two other high-ranking government officials who were allegedly involved in this fraudulent activity.

Accordingly, Sugath Janaka Fernando, also known as ‘Aruna Deepthi’, Chief Executive Officer of the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) Dr. Vijith Gunasekara and Director (Supplies Division) of the Ministry of Health Dr. Kapila Wickramanayake were barred from flying out of the country.

Earlier this month, the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) said that forged documents were found to have been submitted for Customs clearance when importing the drug which later failed the quality tests.

The product, which was said to have been manufactured by Livealth Biopharma Pvt Ltd. India, was imported by a local medicine supplier called Isolez Biotech Pharma AG (Pvt) Ltd. However, the India-based manufacturer has denied having to do anything with this fraudulent activity and has communicated to the NMRA that it has neither manufactured, supplied nor exported these products to any party.

It was found that funds amounting to Rs. 130 million were misappropriated through the unlawful importation of 22,500 vials of IVIG.

The local medicines regulator recently said the situation came to light following reports of allergic reactions after the drug was administered to several patients being treated at the Colombo National Hospital and the Matale District Hospital on August 22 and September 16, respectively.