RAB arrests 9 over marketing fake medical test kits
The deception and malicious business of this vicious circle is deeply rooted, and the RAB has launched a massive investigation to eradicate it
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has detained nine people from three organisations in the capital on charges of selling and marketing unauthorised and expired medical devices and testing kits.
The elite force also seized a large quantity of unauthorised, expired and counterfeit medical test kits and reagents from the warehouses of the three organisations – Biolab International in Lalmatia, and its affiliated entities Axon Technologies and Services Ltd and Hi-Tech Healthcare Ltd in Banani, read a press release.
Acting on a tip-off, a team of RAB-2, the RAB executive magistrate, and representatives of the Directorate General of Drug Administration carried out an operation in the warehouses of three organisations on Thursday.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
They found that the expiry dates of products that were already expired or about to expire were being extended with the help of special printing machines in the presence of the officials of the organisations.
Preliminary inquiries and interrogations revealed that the accused, in mutual connivance since 2010, had collected expired or about-to-expire test kits and re-agents from domestic and foreign importers and suppliers at a very low cost and reprinted their labels with the help of special printing machines before marketing those products.
They regularly provided test kits and reagents for various diagnoses, such as jaundice, diabetes, pneumonia, Covid-19, cancer, and other pathological tests. The list even includes expired pathological test kits and re-agents prescribed for the diagnosis of AIDS.
The deception and malicious business of this vicious circle is deeply rooted, and the RAB has launched a massive investigation to eradicate it, read the press release.
The perpetrators of all these criminal activities are being prosecuted for creating a serious threat to public health and the process of handing them over to police is underway.
The operation will continue in the future by verifying important information received from the detainees.
The detainees are Axon Technologies and Services Ltd Managing Director Md Mahmudul Hasan, 40, Hitech Health Care Ltd Managing Director SM Mostofa Kamal, 48, and Biolab International owner Md Shamim Mollah, 40, Manager Md Shahidul Alam, 42, engineer Abdullah Al Baki Sabbir, 24, office assistant Md Ziaur Rahman, 35, accountant Md Suman, 35, office clerk and marketing officer Jahidul Amin Pulak, 27, and service engineer Md Sohel Rana, 28.
