Police and State Drug Control Authority officers conducted raids on Saturday evening and seized machines meant to manufacture fake medicines.
Acting on a tip-off, the joint team raided the house of one Ravi Shankar Kumar in Maheshpur under the jurisdiction Mehndiganj police station area of Patna City and seized 10 machines, including grinder, mixer grinder, capsule cutter and machine to make syrup, used to manufacture drugs.
Ravi Shankar, a medicine trader from whose premises the machines were recovered, is already in jail in connection with the supply of expired and fake drugs.
Patna City superintendent of police (SP) (central) Chandan Kushwaha said: "We had received a tip-off that an illegal drug factory was operating in Mehndiganj. Machines worth Rs 50 lakh in the open market were seized."
Police sources said fake and expired drugs were grinded in the machines and after processing, they were packed in new packets with new labels. The machine also manufactured tablets and syrup.
The factory was located on the ground floor of a three-storeyed building in a narrow lane in Maheshpur.
Three months ago, owner Ravi Shankar was arrested from Bangali Akhara under the jurisdiction of Agamkuan police station. At that time, cops had recovered a large quantity of fake drugs from his possession and also raided his shop, Aditya Pharma, on Govind Mitra Road.
Police sources said though Ravi Shankar was in jail, the police got inputs that other members of his gang supplied illegal drugs in Patna and ran a fake drugs factory.
However, when the police raided the factory on Saturday evening, there was no one there. No drug was even recovered.
Siyaram Kumar, a sub-inspector at Mehndiganj police station, said: "No drug was recovered from the spot but we found traces of some powder on the machines, indicating that some medicines had been grinded."
The State Drug Control Authority and Patna police have been conducting raids for two months and been seizing illegal drugs.
State drug inspector Sachidanand Prasad said: "The State Drug Control Authority has seized drugs worth more than Rs 50 crore during that period. Those included some life-saving drugs and antibiotics too.
Expired medicines that were being sold after changing their labels included many life-saving drugs, including monopod, monocef, mox, mapdox and basic drugs like paracetamol. Expired protein powder and baby oil were also being sold after changing their labels.
The drug authority, which is conducting the drive under Operation Drug Mafia, had seized drugs worth more than Rs 10 crore on April 21 - the official described as he biggest breakthrough against the fake drug supply in the state.
Sources said the cops had to use four trucks to transport the seized consignments comprising expired and spurious medicines of branded pharmaceutical firms, life-saving drugs, surgical equipment and recycled and relabelled syringes and other drugs. The April 21 raid was conducted at Ravi Shankar Kumar's shop, Aditya Pharma, at Govind Mitra Road too.
In the last week of May, the police and drug control authorities seized large quantities of expired drugs worth Rs 20 lakh from Govind Mitra Road.
The official said: "For disposal of expired drugs, medical shops and pharmaceutical companies have to take permission from the drug control administration. There is committee under the drug control administration, which gives the permission for disposal of drugs."
Under the supervision of officials from the drug control administration, the expired drugs are destroyed in incinerators. In Patna, expired drugs are destroyed in incinerators at Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences.
