AVOID Pharmaco Healthcare in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India and Tainted Medicine — A Cautionary Tale!
Posted: March 2023
I had a bad reaction to a supplement manufactured by Pharmaco Healthcare. Soon after taking the supplement, I started experiencing unbearable itching all over my body because the supplement was tainted. I initially assumed that I was having an allergic reaction to something. The itching was so severe that I ended up breaking capillaries. I thought I had developed hives, so I went to see a doctor, who gave me a steroid shot to provided relief from the itching. The itching returned after a week, but without any accompanying rashes or hives. I went to the doctor again, and I was diagnosed with dry skin and given another steroid shot.
The supplement I took was manufactured by Pharmaco Healthcare. There are many companies named Pharmaco Healthcare. So to be clear, the company I’m referring to is located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India—It’s NOT Global Pharma Healthcare, which made headlines in March 2023 after people who used their contaminated Indian eye drops not only went blind, but had to have their eyes surgically removed.
Pharmaco Healthcare’s address, from Google, is Plot No 31 Road No 5/A, Kathwada GIDC, Kathwada, Ahmedabad, Gujarat 382430, India. Pharmaco Healthcare is a Partnership, and their date of registration for the Indian Goods and Services Tax (GST) is January 1, 2018. Their GST Number is 24AAVFP3168P1ZC and their FSSAI Number is 10721999001225.
Despite the second steroid shot, the itching continued to persist, so I went to see the doctor again, for the third time. This time, I underwent a comprehensive blood test, which revealed alarmingly elevated liver enzyme levels. Specifically, my bilirubin level exceeded twice the usual range, while my ALT, AST, and GGT levels were off the charts—about ten times the normal limit. It was the elevated bilirubin level that was causing the unbearable itching. The doctor diagnosed me with drug-induced liver injury — most likely caused by the adulterated health supplement that I had recently started taking. This supplement was manufactured by Pharmaco Healthcare in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
Due to the severity of my condition, I was asked to go to the ER with the advice that it’s the best place to be if I ever needed a new liver. My liver enzyme levels continued to spike, but shortly after my doctor told me to get my affairs in order, my liver enzyme levels started to slowly decrease. I was eventually released after two weeks. The irony of my story is that I took the supplement because it was supposed to be good for my health, but it ended up permanently damaging my liver.
Pharmaco Healthcare claims to have numerous heavyweight certifications. However, when I attempted to verify their certifications after returning from the hospital, I was only able to confirm their Indian FSSAI number (10721999001225). Pharmaco Healthcare even has a stylized US FDA logo on their products. The only problem is that the US FDA does not approve supplements in the US, let alone other countries. I am sharing my story because tainted medicine — usually from small, obscure Indian pharmaceutical companies — is not unusual. A simple Google search for INDIA TAINTED MEDICINE will reveal the gravity of the problem.
In this part of the world, it is common sense to be proactive and verify the heavyweight certifications that are claimed by pharmaceutical companies. If a company is using questionable tactics to take down truthful reviews because people had a bad reaction to their product, and they can’t verify the company’s certifications, then can you trust their medicine? If you have doubts, you can take it a step further and have their products analyzed. Use Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) for testing and quantification of heavy metals, alongside qualitative analysis to detect the presence of contaminants typically encountered in Indian supplements, like prescription drugs, pesticides, bacterial contaminants, and other hazardous compounds that cause liver failure. Use a reputable laboratory in a Western country. If you must use an Indian laboratory, make sure it’s NABL accredited.
Pharmaco Healthcare in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, appears to be owned by Bhavyesh Patel and Alpa Patel. They attack anyone who says anything unflattering about them. People who are concerned about consumer safety do not act in this manner. There is an array of certification logos from prominent International authorities that are displayed on Pharmaco Healthcare’s products. I asked about how to verify these certifications because it struck me as improbable that a small and unknown Indian company could have achieved such a feat. But instead of answering my question, these people harassed me by taking down my truthful review again and again in the most unethical ways, and by trying to find out who I am. This made me mad, so I decided to write about it. This kind of primitive behavior should not be encouraged or entertained by any platform.
Companies that manufacture adulterated medicine and supplements usually claim false certifications. For example, India based Maiden Pharmaceuticals and Marion Biotech falsely claimed WHO-GMP and other certifications to sell their “cyanide in a bottle” medicine, murdering hundreds of innocent children in 2022. Then, they claim they did nothing wrong.
I must post my story as a record for the sake of public safety because it’s vital to record and share information when someone has a bad reaction to a medical product. In the Third World, where life is cheap, there is a culture of impunity that prioritizes profits over consumer safety. Let me just say that people’s lives are far more important than you saving face.
I took the time to write this review because people use the Internet, specifically social networking, to share truthful reviews and experiences. Suppressing the truth undermines trust in the platform and jeopardizes public health by stifling the truth. The owner certainly has a right to respond to public reviews. Platforms provide this feature, but maliciously taking down truthful reviews is unethical and should not be entertained or encouraged by any platform. Unfortunately, India has a poor track record when it comes to freedom of speech, so most platforms that operate in India, like Google, have become dumping grounds where cheap social media companies dump fairy tales for pocket change. Before Elon Musk bought Twitter, Twitter employees in India were regularly harassed by the feral Indian cops. They raided the homes of Twitter employees in India and threatened to jail them if they did not hand over user information. In India, people get harassed, assaulted, and even killed over cartoons, tweets, and for telling the truth.
Those who manufacture tainted medicine in India operate much like organized crime. They target countries in Africa and Central Asia. In the past year, there have been reports of people dying from tainted Indian medicine, carrying fake certification stamps, from the Gambia to Uzbekistan to the Marshall Islands and Micronesia. In fact, according to Wikipedia, the whole world has become a dumping ground for fake Indian medicine. If you are interested in learning more on the topic, I highly recommend the book Bottle of Lies: The Dark Side of Indian Pharma. The book was written by American investigative journalist Katherine Eban and published in 2019 by HarperCollins. The book revolves around Dinesh Thakur (Wikipedia), who turned whistleblower when his sick son did not respond to medicine made by the very company he was working for. The book mentions that after top executives at Ranbaxy were informed of the death toll caused by their tainted medicine in Africa, they responded by saying, “it’s just Blacks dying.”
Ranbaxy was one of the top pharmaceutical companies in India. It was incorporated in 1961 and went public in 1973. During 2004–2005, two Indian employees of the company, Dinesh Thakur and Rajinder Kumar, blew the whistle on Ranbaxy’s fabrication of drug test reports. In 2008, Daiichi Sankyo valued the company at USD $8.5 billion, which is equivalent to about USD $12 billion in 2023 dollars, adjusted for inflation. They made so much money because they cheated and killed people in cold blood — it’s blood money.
The goal of white-collar criminals who engage in such activities is to amass wealth discreetly, then go to far away nice places and hire lawyers who will fight for them. The notorious Indian cyber criminal, Rajat Khare Mercenary Hacker of Appin, comes to mind.
Indian FSSAI certification is very easy to get. It does not mean anything. In India, adulterated medicine and supplements are sold at major retailers; and if someone points out that the supplement is loaded with pesticides and heavy metals that cause organ failure, the company’s marketing head will sic the filthy Indian cops on you and destroy your life.
