Phensedyl Trail and a leading Indian Pharmaceutical Corporation
Report , by Dr. Kazi Mahboob Hassan
In recent decade, Phensedyl became the most commonly abused illicit drug in Bangladesh. Since the mid to late 1990s, numerous bottles of Phensedyl smuggled in to Bangladesh through Western and Eastern region of India-Bangladesh porous border. Phensedyl abuse is also common in India, Nepal and Myanmar. According to the Department of Narcotic Control of Bangladesh, 3, 25,966 bottles of Phensedyl has been seized during 2001 to till May 2005. However, the actual amount smuggled was beyond our imagination. Who are producing this and how it is being marketed? Kazi Mahboob Hassan has more.
In recent decade, Phensedyl became the most commonly abused illicit drug in Bangladesh. Due to its addictive nature, it was made illegal in Bangladesh by Drug ordinance of 1982. Currently the main source of this illegal Phensedyl syrup is India, where Phensedyl is legally produced and used as over-the counter drug for treatment cough. The major pharmaceutical company that produces Phensedyl is Rhone Poulenc India, in 2000; Nicholas Piramal India Ltd (NPIL) acquired the company from Aventis. Phensedyl is now one of the bestselling products of NPIL.
Since the Mid to late 1990s, numerous bottles of Phensedyl smuggled in to Bangladesh through Western and Eastern region of India-Bangladesh porous border. Phensedyl abuse is also common in India, Nepal and Myanmar. According to the Department of Narcotic Control of Bangladesh, 3, 25,966 bottles of Phensedyl has been seized during 2001 to till May 2005. But the actual amount smuggled was beyond our imagination. In a recent article published in Outlook India by Smita Gupta titled ⿿???Narcotic Hiccoughs⿿?? for the first time shed some light on the Phensedyl trail from a country⿿????s leading pharmaceutical company to Bangladesh-India Border for smuggling.
On July 2, 2005, The Ahmedabad Zonal Unit of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) of India on July 2, 2005, pressed charge on Yogesh Bakshi, national sales manager of Actis, a division Nicholas Piramal India Ltd (NPIL) ⿿???in connection with the diversion of codeine, a narcotic drug contained in the cough syrup Phensedyl⿿??. NCB also mentioned that Yogesh Bakshi and other...stockists and transporters of the company at Kolkata and Agartala are diverting/smuggling... Phensedyl to West Bengal and the Northeast region and Bangladesh for non-medicinal use, i.e. drug abuse in an organized manner and with full knowledge and for material gains." According to the NCB's case, four lakh bottles of Phensedyl were seized recently while being smuggled across the Indo-Bangladesh border. Further, Bakshi had "diverted more than three crore bottles" to the Northeast region in the last three years.
A team of NCB officers who searched M/s Bejali found that the 10 feet by 12 feet shop was abandoned and no medical sales had taken place there. Intelligence, quoted by the NCB, states that approximately 20 lakh bottles of Phensedyl which arrived in this region have been diverted in the last three years. Information with the NCB indicates that "of the 4-4.5 crore bottles produced by NPIL, around 3-3.5 crore bottles are sold in the Northeast and West Bengal." Of this 2.5 crore bottles are diverted to addicts. The report also mentioned that about one crore bottles of Phensedyl are "sold" annually in Tripura which has a population of 32 lakh. Beside NCB has pointed out in court, the approximate annual Rs 200 crore profit from smuggling the cough syrup goes into "the hands of...smugglers, insurgents and anti-social elements". It adds that, for instance, the NCB has been able to establish a nexus between the smuggling of Phensedyl and the terrorist group, the All Tripura Tiger Force for financing their operation.
NCB indicates that "of the 4 to 4.5 crore bottles produced by NPIL, around 3 to 3.5 crore bottles are sold in the Northeast and West Bengal .Of this 2.5 crore bottles are diverted to addicts across the region.⿿?? The agency accuses Bakshi of ordering the supply of 8.08 lakh bottles of Phensedyl in 2004-05 alone to M/s Bejali Medical Agency in Belonia, a sub-divisional headquarter on the Bangladesh border, 120 km from Agartala.
Ahmedabad magistrate court also asked all relevant persons of the NIPL, including the presidents of marketing and sales of NPIL, all those involved in the production and sale of Phensedyl to appear before the court. The report also mentioned that, ⿿???NPIL's defense has been that since the concentration of codeine in Phensedyl is within the legally prescribed permissible limit in India and is a therapeutic drug, it cannot be classified as a narcotic drug covered under country⿿????s narcotic laws.⿿?? It was also argued that the NPIL gets Phensedyl manufactured from a third party and then sends it through various transporters to its four hubs and from there to carrying and forwarding agents at 24 locations. The company, thereafter, loses control and property over the goods once they are sold to the stockists.
It became a very sensitive case which has an international dimension due to the high profile of the company and its chairman, Ajay G. Piramal. Officials, both in the NCB and the home ministry, made no comment. Indeed, the report mentioned that ⿿???government sources said there was a great deal of pressure on the investigating agencies, even from ministers of the previous government to keep the case under wraps⿿??. NPIL is the major enterprise of the Rs 2,500 crore Piramal Enterprises (PEL), one of India's largest diversified business houses, which also has interests in retailing, textiles, auto-components and engineering. The group is headed by Ajay Piramal, who is also the chairman of NPIL. He holds several positions of importance in Indian industry like, member of the Prime Minister's Council for Trade and Industry and the Prime Minister's Taskforce on Pharmaceuticals and Knowledge-Based Industries, External Director, State Bank of India and Member, Board of Trade in the ministry of commerce.
On September 26, 2003, one news article published in Daily Observer entitled ⿿???Indian phensidyl causing harm to Bangladeshi youths⿿?? described a sinister picture of Phensedyl smuggling across the border. These factories were located at five to eight kilometers inside Indian Territory and producing substandard form of drug purely for the purpose of smuggling into Bangladesh. The report said that 3,000 of such clandestine factories for illegal production of Phensedyl were set up over the past several years at bordering Indian villages and semi-urban areas along the border. Phensedyl was also smuggled into Nepal and Myanmar. Many of these Phensedyl destined for Bangladesh further adulterated with different sweetening agents to maximize the profit.
It should be mentioned that in 1995, Annual report of International Narcotic Control Board mentioned in the annual report that ⿿???the codeine phosphate content of some Phensedyl batches found on the illicit markets in Bangladesh and Nepal is much higher than that of the Phensedyl that is licitly available in India.⿿?? In addition to Phensedyl, the most commonly injected illicit drug now in Bangladesh, Tidigesic (buprenorphine) is also smuggled from India, where is it produced legally, but because of the weakness of controls over the pharmaceutical supply system, despite existing prescription obligations, injectable buprenorphine preparations are easily available without a medical prescription and resulting in illegal trafficking. Since the mid 1990s, an alarming increase of buprenorphine abuse has been reported in Bangladesh, India and Nepal, contributing to the spread of HIV infection.
Kazi Mahboob Hassan
University of Melbourne
Meghbarta - 2009
