THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A massive cross-border discounting racket has put life-saving medicines under scrutiny in Kerala, with regulators fearing that counterfeit, diverted and spoiled drugs are flooding the market. The state’s investigation into pharmacies offering “impossible” discounts of up to 90% has traced a shadowy supply chain back to bulk dealers in Agra, Mathura, Hyderabad and Madurai.
The loophole emerged following the implementation of the GST, which granted stockists freedom to source medicines from anywhere in the country. A N Mohan, the state president of the All Kerala Chemists and Druggists Association, said these interstate bulk dealers are directly driving the predatory, deep-discount storefronts currently destabilising the local market.
The drugs control department has launched a crackdown, warning that the crisis extends beyond unfair pricing. In several cases, manufacturers have outright denied producing specific drug batches found in pharmacies, confirming that unverified and potentially fake medications are actively circulating.
This threat was realised recently when the department uncovered a major counterfeit drug racket involving fake asthma medication during inspections in Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur and Kozhikode. Regulators also suspect an illegal channel where medicines designated for subsidised supply are being funnelled into the open market.
A senior department official said their primary source of anxiety are the quality of medicines coming from such untraceable sources. This is particularly critical for medications like insulin, which demand strict, uninterrupted cold-chain storage throughout transport. Officials warn that it is virtually impossible to guarantee the efficacy of temperature-sensitive medicines moving through these unverified, long-distance supply networks.
The influx of grey-market pharmaceuticals has also triggered an economic collapse for local supply chains, leading to mass layoffs of medical representatives who work for authorised stockists. As pharmacies bypass legitimate channels to chase illicit margins, local representatives find themselves frozen out.