Elder Pharma Alerts Drug Regulator to Fake Drugs in Market Copying Its Brand Name, Logo

CDSCO has been conducting risk-based inspections across the country to filter out the manufacturers of spurious or substandard quality medicines. (Getty Image for Representation)

Mumbai-based drug maker Elder has raised an alarm with Indian drug regulatory authorities, citing the proliferation of counterfeit products bearing its brand name.

The company asserts that these imitation drugs, being of substandard quality and potentially life-threatening, pose a severe threat to public health.

The accompanying letter included a list of 27 counterfeit brand names closely resembling Elder’s, such as Elder Bio Drugs, Ealder Pharmaceuticals, Elder A to Z, Elder Bio Care, and Elder Formulations.

The originator of the top-selling calcium supplement brand Shelcal — which was sold to pharma giant Torrent in 2014 — Elder Pharmaceuticals is now known as Elder Project Limited.

Acting on the complaint filed by the firm, the drug regulatory agency has raided multiple firms in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Haryana, selling products copying the company’s brand name. More than eight firms have given undertakings to DCGI not to plagiarise the brand in future.

SVP Lifesciences, Quixotic Pharma, T&G Medicare, Antex Pharma, Russian Remedies, Progressive Lifesciences, Elder Wellness, Elder Products and Tirupathi Lifesciences have been asked by regulatory agency Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) to stop copying Elder’s brand name & deplete the existing stock within 6-8 weeks.

News18 has sent emails to SVP Lifesciences, Quixotic Pharma, T&G Medicare, Antex Pharma and Progressive Lifesciences. Russian Remedies, Elder Wellness and Elder Products do not have official websites and the last two do not have addresses as well as they work as marketing firms.

In a letter written to the chief of CDSCO, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) in December, Elder’s managing director Anuj Saxena sought assistance in “stopping the illegal use of the company name and logo, and products by small traders”.

News18 has seen the letter and reached out to DCGI. This article will be updated when the regulator gives a response.

For the last year, drug makers have been under the scanner of CDSCO. The move was initiated under health minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya and CDSCO has been conducting risk-based inspections across the country to filter out the manufacturers of spurious or substandard quality medicines.

Copying our logo, cheating doctors & patients: Elder

The letter titled “Unauthorised use of our company name and brands by a few companies while manufacturing and marketing pan India market” said in the “last three to four years, small traders out of Delhi and other parts of the country have formed similar companies with the prefix Elder and are even copying the logo and the brand names of our brands and selling in the rural areas and smaller cities and misleading the medical fraternities”.

The letter attached the list of at least 27 fake brand names resembling Elder such as Elder Bio Drugs, Ealder Pharmaceuticals, Elder A to Z, Elder Bio Care and Elder Formulations.

The company also attached the laboratory testing reports of the medicines manufactured by these firms. Using the reports, Saxena claimed that these drugs are “found to be of substandard quality” and are “life-threatening due to their poor quality”.

The firm requested DCGI “to take stern action against the culprits who are engaged in endangering the life of patients with such substandard pharmaceutical products”.

The company submitted the list of names of the companies/firms along with their addresses, requesting action.

Firms give undertaking, call act “unintentional”

The undertakings submitted to the DCGI and accessed by News 18 are signed by the owners of the drug-making firms called out by Elder.

The companies said they are “tendering sincere apology” to DCGI due to their “complete ignorance of the law” but the act was “unintentional”.

For instance, several firms were found manufacturing Elder’s Eldervit injection used for treating nutritional deficiencies.

The firms signed the document on February 12 which said, “Due to the inadvertence, our company has plagiarised trademark of pharmaceutical products under the brand name of “Elder” Eldervit injection in relation to identical services and had been manufacturing and distributing the said products to customers…”

The companies gave an undertaking that they would not manufacture and distribute any of the products using the Elder’s brand name and remove all plagiarised products from the market within six weeks of signing the undertaking.