DEHRADUN: At least nine people in Singapore have been hospitalised between Feb 2024 to Feb 2025 after developing serious skin conditions linked to consuming Modafinil and Armodafinil tablets that were manufactured in India and procured without doctor’s prescription by the users. The medicine, which is not registered in that country, was obtained in the Geylang neighbourhood from street peddlers or friends to boost alertness and energy, Singapore’s Health Sciences Authority (HSA) said on Monday.HSA, the country’s public health regulatory body, — while cautioning against its use. The regulator said that the drug is often prescribed for conditions like narcolepsy (a condition that makes people very sleepy during the day) in some countries, but is unregistered in Singapore. It also noted that the affected individuals, aged 18-57, included two women.HSA did not disclose the manufacturer’s details, but TOI found that the tablets of which pictures were circulated in the local media in Singapore and other Southeast nations, were produced by a pharmaceutical company in Uttarakhand’s Dehradun.The strips indicated that the drugs were manufactured in 2023, with an expiry date of 2025. The HSA in its advisory however, had mentioned that those hospitalised, ‘had used those medicines inappropriately with an intention to boost energy, and were brought from the street peddlers without doctors prescription’. Of the nine hospitalised individuals, six developed Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS), a life-threatening condition causing severe blistering and peeling of the skin and mucous membranes. Among them, three suffered from toxic epidermal necrolysis, an even more severe form of SJS.Dehradun district magistrate Savin Bansal said the administration would take necessary legal action after reviewing details through govt channels. “The district administration is committed to ensuring public health safety. We have already issued a direction earlier to the officials concerned to register a case and make necessary arrests in such cases,” Bansal said.
