CDSCO bribery case: CBI seeks custodial remand of all 5 accused-Andhravilas

CDSCO bribery case: CBI seeks custodial remand of all 5 accused

New Delhi, June 28 - In a latest development in connection with the CDSCO bribery case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has moved the Delhi High court seeking custodial remand of all the five accused who were allegedly involved in waiving the Phase 3 trial of 'Insulin Aspart Injection' of Biocon Biologics. Accepting the application, the Delhi High Court has fixed the matter for hearing on July 2.

The CBI had arrested Guljit Sethi, the Director of Bioinnovat Research Service Private Limited; L. Praveen Kumar, the Associate Vice President and Head of National Regulatory Affairs of Biocon Biologics Limited; Animesh Kumar, the Assistant Drug Inspector of CDSCO; E. Eswara Reddy, the Joint Drug Controller (JDC) of Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO); and Dinesh Dua, the Director of Delhi-based Synergy Network India Private Limited.

Reddy is currently posted as JDC with CDSCO headquarters in New Delhi. Now the CBI wants the custodial remand of all of them.

A CBI official said that on the basis of a complaint, they filed a case against Reddy, Dua, Sethi, Praveen and Animesh and others and later arrested the five persons.

It was alleged that Reddy was trying to exert undue influence on the officials of CDSCO to waive the Phase 3 trial of Insulin Aspart Injection. The accused agreed to pay a bribe amount of Rs 9 lakh to Reddy for processing the said three files related to Bengaluru-based Biocon Biologics Limited and also for favourably recommending the file of Insulin Aspart Injection to the Subject Expert Committee meeting.

The CBI laid a trap wherein Reddy was caught while accepting a bribe of Rs 4 lakh from Dua.

The CBI also conducted searches at 11 locations in Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, Patna and Bengaluru, which led to the recovery of incriminating documents.

The Biocon Biologics had issued a statement saying its Aspart was approved in Europe and many other countries.

"We deny few allegations reported in India. All our product approvals are legitimate and backed by science and clinical data. Our Aspart is approved in Europe and many other countries. We follow due regulatory process for all our product approvals by DCGI. The entire application process in India is online and all meeting minutes are in public domain. We are co-operating with the investigation agency," it said.

Claiming that it adopts global best practices in corporate governance, Biocon said that the rationale for waiver of phase 3 clinical trials was based on the following Indian regulatory guidance (Similar Biologics Guidelines 2016 & New Drugs and Clinical Trials 2019 {GSR 227 E}).

The guidelines provide a framework for waiver of phase 3 clinical trials to be conducted in India based on a commitment to undertake Phase 4 trial, the design of which should be approved by the Central Licencing Authority, Biocon said.

"In line with the above regulations, Biocon Biologics presented a proposal for import and marketing of Insulin Aspart with a waiver of phase 3 clinical trial in India. The company presented a detailed proposal along with CMC, pre-clinical and clinical trial data," the company said.

According to Biocon, after detailed deliberation, the Subject Expert Committee (Endocrinology and Metabolism) at CDSCO recommended for grant of permission to import and market the drug with waiver of phase 3 clinical trial in the country with the condition that the firm should conduct phase 4 clinical trials in India.

--IANS

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(IANS)

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