Hyderabad: Sleuths of Telangana’s Drugs Control Administration on Friday in Hyderabad busted a racket of illegal ‘human plasma’ and ‘whole human blood’ collection from various blood banks of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The illegally collected blood was being repackaged in unhygienic conditions in an apartment and sold to laboratories engaged in various research activities at higher prices.
On credible information, DCA officials raided an entity ‘Haemo Service Laboratories’ located in a residential building in Moosapet of Hyderabad.
During the raid, DCA officials found huge stocks of human plasma bags and bottles stocked in the freezers located in the premises. Stocks of human serum and human blood were also found in the freezers.
They found one R Raghavendra Naik who had been running Haemo Service Laboratories for the last eight years in the apartment and collecting plasma from various blood banks illegally and stocking them for sale in an unauthorized manner.
During the raid, DCA officials found that Naik was also carrying out repacking of plasma, whole human blood and serum at the premises in extremely unhygienic conditions.
Naik has been in this trade since 2016 and procured thousands of units of blood from the blood banks since then and sold them to private laboratories engaged in several research activities in Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. He had also spilled the beans about the blood banks in Kurnool and Hyderabad from where he has been procuring blood units illegally.
“Our officials found that a human plasma bag of 150 ml procured illegally from Blood Banks at Rs 700, was sold at Rs. 3,800 to the firms. In-vitro diagnostic kits regarding HIV, HCV, HBsAg, VDRL and Malarial Parasite were also stocked by Naik,” said DCA director general VB Kamalasan Reddy.
DCA sleuths seized stocks found at the premises along with certain documents. “Further investigation shall be carried out and action shall be taken as per the law against all the offenders,” added Reddy.
Published 02 February 2024, 17:12 IST