Rs 17 lakh cancer medicine bought for Rs 20,000! How police traced doctor in alleged illegal drug racket

New Delhi: A 39-year-old doctor from Faridabad has been arrested by the Delhi Police for allegedly dealing in expensive cancer medicines that were reportedly smuggled, adulterated or not approved for sale in India.

According to the police, the doctor allegedly sourced and sold high-value oncology drugs through an online pharmaceutical business, with some medicines reportedly carrying market prices running into lakhs of rupees. The arrest came during an investigation into a larger suspected racket involving the illegal procurement and distribution of cancer and other life-saving medicines in Delhi-NCR.

The matter goes back to when two packs of Iclusig, a drug prescribed for certain blood cancers, reached a patient through a US-based patient assistance programme after three other medicines had failed to provide relief. When the drug did not suit the patient, he decided to sell it.

That was when the doctor allegedly contacted the patient through his online pharmacy, reportedly HK Pharmaceutical, which he had listed on IndiaMART in 2023. In January 2024, he allegedly bought two packs, each containing 30 tablets, for Rs 40,000.

The Delhi police said that each pack was worth more than Rs 17 lakh in the market.

The origin of the doctor's alleged involvement

The purchase and sale of illegal cancer drugs had allegedly been running for more than a year when the doctor reportedly got his hand on the drug from the cancer patient.

For over a year, he had allegedly been buying and selling expensive cancer medicines through the said pharmacy to a patient from Afghanistan, among others. His alleged dealings began with his IndiaMART listing for HK Pharmaceutical.

The platform allows pharmacies and medicine suppliers to list their businesses and share contact details with potential customers and wholesalers. The investigators suspect that the doctor allegedly used this platform to carry out his racket. 

However, the doctor allegedly bought Iclusig drug after the blood cancer patient contacted him via the listing in January 2024. The patient had been prescribed Iclusig – a drug that works by blocking proteins that promote tumour growth. It comes in multiple dosages – 10 mg to 45mg – and is usually taken once a day.

A police officer informed The Indian Express that a US Foundation had agreed to provide the drug. But when there was no relief, the patient decided to sell it.

According to investigators, the doctor knew the real value of such medicines and had allegedly been dealing in other expensive drugs as well. For over a year, his company had allegedly been sourcing and selling Darzalex 1.8 mg and Human Albumin Solution 20%.

"Darzalex is not entirely banned… just its 1.8 mg version. It is used as an antibody to treat plasma cancer in patients and is priced at around Rs. 2.27 lakh. Human Albumin is used to expand blood volume in cancer patients and maintain blood flow through their heart," the officer said.

The doctor allegedly sold the drugs through IndiaMART. He had reportedly paid Rs 40,000 for batches of Darzalex and Albumin to sellers he contacted through the platform and was planning to sell them.

From doctor to online medicine seller

The doctor's background has also come under the scanner during the investigation. In 2010, he went to Russia to study medicine, as per the daily source.

He returned to India in 2014 and appeared for the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination (FMGE). However, he failed the examination multiple times. He later worked at a hospital in Faridabad, according to police.

In 2021, he opened a Hospital in Faridabad's Jawahar Colony. In 2023, he opened another branch in Sohna.  The businesses, however, struggled to meet their operating costs. Police sources said their practice of hiring freelancers ran up costs. They shut down the hospitals and transitioned into smaller businesses.

That was when the couple, the doctor and his wife, an ayurveda practitioner, set up a Polyclinic in Faridabad and started HK Pharmaceutical. The latter was registered on IndiaMART.

The doctor later expanded his commercial reach online through e-commerce and B2B platforms. 

His arrest

The doctor was arrested after a team led by Inspector Pawan Kumar and Sub Inspector Anupama laid a trap. The team placed an order and asked for the order to be delivered to Sukhdev Vihar in Southeast Delhi.

On Friday, a man turned up at the drop site carrying packs of Iclusig, Darzalex, and Albumin. When he reached a Mother Dairy booth and got out of the car, he was apprehended. On verification, he was found to be the doctor.

A search of the vehicle allegedly led to the recovery of high-value, specialised pharmaceuticals. The cops, operating alongside authorised representatives from major drug manufacturers, seized four packets of Iclusig, four 100-ml vials of Human Albumin Solution IP 20%, and two boxes of Darzalex 1.800 mg.

After seizing the drugs, the authorities inspected them and found that the Albumin and Darzalex might have been produced in Turkey. That led police to suspect human carriers were used to bring the drugs into India, either via air or sea routes. The cops have reached out to the Customs Department.

"We suspect the MRP (i.e, the maximum retail price) stickers on some of the seized drugs could be fake. The results of a forensic examination – for authenticity – are awaited. The doctor told us he had procured Albumin and Darzalex from pharmacists in Patel Nagar in Delhi and Gurgaon in Haryana. However, raids of these places yielded nothing. It is possible, those running the centers had been tipped off somehow. It is also possible, he had lied. For now our focus is to confirm the source of these medicines," the police told the daily. 

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that seventeen people were arrested and hundreds of vials of life-saving drugs were recovered by the Delhi Police's Crime Branch, busting an alleged multi-state racket involving counterfeit and illegally diverted anti-cancer medicines worth around Rs 9 crore. A team of the Crime Branch recovered 588 filled anti-cancer vials, six empty vials, seven empty medicine boxes, 3,021 units of other medicines and around Rs 50 lakh in cash.

The recovered medicines included Darzalex, Imfinzi, Erbitux, Opdyta, Gazyva, Bavencio, Adcetris and Keytruda, which are predominantly used in the treatment of various types of cancers. "The syndicate had supply links across Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and other locations," the police officer said.

The syndicate obtained medicines through three channels - counterfeit drugs bought from unauthorised sources, medicines allegedly misappropriated from hospitals meant for cancer patients, and government-supplied medicines diverted from government institutions and warehouses.

Also read- Darzalex, Keytruda, Imfinzi Among 588 Cancer Drug Vials Seized in Rs 9 Crore Racket, 17 Arrested