Imphal, Aug. 3: A Manipur-based NGO has set August 20 as the deadline for a Mumbai-based pharmaceutical company to stop sending Spasmo Proxyvon tablets to the state or face a “total ban” of its pharmaceutical products.
Taju Uddin Yumkhaibam, secretary general of the All Manipur Anti-Drug Association, served the ultimatum to Wockhardt Pvt Ltd of Mumbai in a letter addressed to its managing director yesterday.
Spasmo Proxyvon, a pharmaceutical drug legally produced in India as a painkiller, is abused by drug addicts as an alternative to heroin. They use it orally as well as intravenously.
The state government had put the drug on its list of banned drugs four years ago. It is, however, freely available in the market with huge consignments being smuggled in.
The association has also asked Wockhardt to clarify whether it sends consignments of the drug to any druggist or stockist in the state “legally or illegally”.
The NGO informed the pharmaceutical company that some units in Guwahati and Silchar of Assam were allegedly manufacturing the drug in its name and illegally sending huge consignments of the same to Manipur. It urged the company to check whether the reports were true and take appropriate steps.
Volunteers of the anti-drug campaign seized 3,081 strips of Spasmo Proxyvon and rounded up 75 drug addicts and traffickers, between December 20 last year and July 25 this year.