By Kamal Pratap Singh, Managing Editor, Biotech Express E-mail- kamal9871@gmail.com
Now “unconstitutional” electoral bonds scheme which was launched by BJP to take donations from corporate or individuals for political parties funding has gained much heat after supreme court order to SBI and EC. Twitter (now X) is now full of allegations that the money was taken either as extortion or bribe to favor their corporate friends or blackmailing enemies. In this article we will see what biotech/pharma and allied companies are involved in this list. And what gains they were expecting by donating their money to Electoral bonds. Before going into details let’s see these two tweets in hindi first –
In the list though there are several names (more than 60 companies/individuals) but special coverage has been made on Adar Poonawalla from Serum Institute, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw from Biocon, Krishna Ella from Bharat Biotech, Piramal Enterprises, Sun Pharma Laboratories Limted, Torrent Pharmaceuticals Limited, Zydus Healthcare Limited, Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital etc. During analysis it was found that some donations were perfectly made during COVID crisis. Some companies would pay crores of rupees but they were not able to afford a website. Now Opposition leaders including Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal are seeking legalities to constitute SIT to probe the matter and including PM-CARES too in this investigation. If this is done we can imagine how the layers of corruption will be erupted.
According to our analysis, around 63 biosciences entities (Table) or individuals involved in pharma, biotech, agriculture, supply chain, diagnostics etc. business purchased electoral bond of around Rs 1500 crore revealed by data released by the Election Commission.
Now let see in detail which companies donated and how they got benefitted. But it is important to point out here that this article does not target any single political party. Funding has been given to several national and regional political parties by pharma and biotech companies.
Going forward we will also get to know about the pandemic related funding because not only Indian govt but almost all countries pushed draconian pandemic lockdown and health measures including vaccination without any concrete proof that virus is indeed harmful. And we can see that even though it was much hyped, countries like Sweden neither lockdown their people nor did they vaccinate against COVID-19. Now, people all over the world are blaming Bill gates and organizations like Blackrock for making this pandemic horrible for their personal gains. Bill Gates has been accused of funding medical research and forceful vaccination in return like he did for his computer antivirus business when he was accused of making computer viruses and selling antivirus.
During the pandemic when everyone became doctor several medicines were suggested like remedesvir, patanjali coronil, indigeneous vaccine etc. and none of us took action against these pharma companies who made significant gains by selling medicines that were not shown effective against COVID virus. For instance Azithromycin was touted for COVID 19 but in real antibiotics only work against bacteria, not viruses. But the non scientific news media did not showed this.
Significantly, during the pandemic the government in every country pushed for indigenous manufacturing of APIs, giving financial support to companies who manufacture it through its production-linked incentive scheme. And that is where this game was played for gains.
Though several videos and articles are circulating in media but this article has unique information about Serum Institute which did not directly paid through electoral bonds but did so using other companies. Interestingly, pandemic added a wealth of USD 10 billion in company’s account which jumped from USD 13 billion to USD 23 billion in just 1 year. Serum institute made USD 13 billion in 60 years but made USD 10 billion in just 1 year because it had monopoly of COVID vaccine in pandemic in India. Cyzachem Pvt Ltd and Sez Biotech Services Pvt Ltd which share common director with Serum Institute paid Rs 3 crore through electoral bonds. Interestingly, these two companies has paid up capital of Rs. 12,503,700,000 and Rs. 1,150,951,000 but they are unable to afford a website for public information about their operations. Earlier they donated to BJP govt Rs 50 crore through other means but the date coincided with the date of vaccine approval. SII receive at least Rs 3000 crore from govt for ramping up production of COVID vaccine. It came to attention when names of SATISH Hanumant Deshpande and Sunder Lata Anand Kavitkar were found as director in companies associated with Poonawalla group. And share directorship with Cyrus Soli Poonawalla, Zavareh Soli Poonawalla and Adar Cyrus Poonawalla.
Another maker of COVID vaccine i.e. Hyderabad-based vaccine manufacturers Bharat Biotech(BB) and three other firms related to it donated Rs 25 crore. Bharat biotech’s COVAXIN was second vaccine that was approved for COVID 19. Interestingly BB also received at least Rs 1500 crore from ruling govt. for ramping up the production of vaccine which it used to buy companies and expanding manufacturing facilities in Bangalore. The other three companies associated with BB including RCC Nutra Fill Private Limited – which manufactures microbiology media – purchased bonds worth Rs 5 crore, Chemical products manufacturer Biovet Private Limited bought bonds for Rs 5 crore and Chiron Behring Vaccines Pvt Ltd. purchased bonds worth Rs 5 crore.
The third company Biological E which got approval for COVID vaccine CORBEVAX donated Rs 5 crore, also figure in the list.
The fourth COVID vaccine manufacturer which got approval was Zydus Healthcare Limited and interestingly it is also in the list of electoral bond donors. Zydus donated a whooping amount of Rs 29 crore for political funding. In 2021, the Bihar drug regulator had declared a batch of remdesivir medicines manufactured by the Gujarat-based company as spurious after traces of bacterial endotoxin were found in them. Several patients were reported to have suffered adverse drug reactions from the medicines. But the Gujarat drug regulator did not collect samples of these batches for further testing and nor did it initiate any action against the manufacturing unit of Zydus.
Biocon Chief Kiran Mazumdar Shaw paid ₹ 6 crore through electoral bonds. During analysis it was found that the date of donation coincides with the date of approval of its insulin drug without phase 3 trial. It came to attaention to whole India when a senior official of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation(CDSCO) and a Biocon Biologics executive were arrested in June in an alleged bribery case. The bribe was allegedly for favourably recommending the file of Insulin Aspart Injection to the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) meeting in May 18 for waiving the phase 3 clinical trial. Biocon too tried to introduce its repurposed novel biologic ALZUMAb® (Itolizumab) for COVID-19 patients. The drug was heavily criticized because its Phase 2 clinical trial was done in just 30 patients but touted as magical drug.
So we can see that almost every Indian COVID vaccine manufacturing company donated to political parties. Now let see what happened with other pharma and healthcare companies.
Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital emerged as the primary purchaser in the healthcare and pharma bond market, acquiring bonds of ₹162 crore. Interestingly, Yashoda Hospital faced scrutiny from the Income Tax Department in December 2020.
Following closely behind was Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, purchasing 80 bonds also valued at ₹1 crore each, totaling ₹80 crores, as reported by CNBC TV18. Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories also encountered tax-related actions in November 2023. Specifically, Dr. K Nagender Reddy of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories was targeted over allegations of tax evasion.
Now so popular because of arrest of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, it came to attention that pharma companies play by other means also. On 10 November 2022, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested P Sarath Chandra Reddy, the director of Aurobindo Pharma, in connection with its money laundering case into alleged irregularities in the Delhi government’s liquor policy. Five days later, on 15 November, Aurobindo Pharma donated electoral bonds worth Rs 5 crore. Then, in May 2023, the Delhi High Court granted bail to Reddy on medical grounds. Aurobindo Pharma then made another set of donations—worth Rs 25 Crore—in November 2023, five months after becoming an approver in the ED case. Now Sarath Chandra Reddy is free but Delhi CM is behind the bars along with his other two ministers and probably with some other associates.
Hetero Labs and Hetero Healthcare bought electoral bonds for Rs 39 crore in April 2022. In the preceding 10 months, the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration issued six notices issued to the Hyderabad-based company for substandard drugs. At least three of them pertained to Remdesivir, an antiviral drug widely used to treat COVID-19, that helped Hetero expand its business during the pandemic. Hetero Pharma also faced I-T action in 2021, after the department found unaccounted income to the tune of ₹550 crore during raids against the group.
Drug firm Divi’s Laboratories, which also faced I-T search operations between February 14 and 18, 2019, under Section 132 of the Income Tax Act, to figures on the list. It bought bonds worth ₹55 crore.
Torrent Pharma bought electoral bonds worth Rs 77.5 crore between May 2019 till January 2024. The Gujarat-based company’s antiplatelet medicine Deplatt-150 had failed the salicylic acid test and was declared substandard by the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration in 2018. In October 2019, the United States Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to the firm for repeated quality-related failures at its manufacturing unit. Such a notice attracts inspection by Indian authorities and could lead to the suspension of a company’s manufacturing licence. However, the Gujarat government did not take any action against the pharmaceutical company.
Cipla received four show-cause notices for its drugs between 2018 and 2022. Since 2019, it has purchased bonds worth Rs 39.2 crore. In August 2018, its RC cough syrup failed to meet standards during an inspection. Then it purchased bonds worth Rs 14 crore the next year. In July 2021, it received notices twice for its remdesivir medicine, Cipremi. Like Hetero, Cipremi was found to have less than the required quantity of remdesivir in it. Cipla bought bonds worth Rs 25.2 crore in November 2022 and then everything was all right.
Intas Pharmaceutical bought 20 crore worth of bonds in October 2022. In 2020, the company’s Enapril-5 tablet had failed the dissolution test by the Maharashtra FDA.
Glenmark received five notices for its substandard drugs between 2022 and 2023. Four of these were issued by the Maharashtra Food and Drugs Administration, which flagged its blood pressure regulating medicine Telma as substandard, mostly failing a dissolution test. The pharmaceutical company purchased Rs 9.75 crore of electoral bonds in November 2022.
IPCA Laboratories Limited bought bonds worth Rs 13.5 crore between November 2022 and October 2023. In October 2018, its anti-parasitic medicine, Lariago, had lower than required chloroquine phosphate levels and was found substandard.
Another pharma giant, Sun Pharma, was reported in May 2019 as being under the scanner for alleged tax evasion of service tax. On May 8, the company purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 10 crore, after having bought Rs 21.5 crore on April 15, 2019.
Msn Pharmachem Pvt Ltd, Msn Laboratories Pvt Ltd, Msn Organics Pvt Ltd made 38 donations amount to total Rs 38 crore. The Income Tax Department conducted raids on the premises of MSN Pharma and its offices in 2021.
Mankind Pharma Limited made 30 donations, total Rs 24.6 crore. The Income Tax Department on May 11 conducted raids on the premises of Mankind Pharma over allegations of tax evasion.
This is not all in the table you can see there are other companies which made profits during pandemic like spirit companies because alchol based sanitizers were supplied more than water in organizations, ogistic companies which moved drugs and other things and online education platforms because all educational institutes were closed during the pandemic.
Conclusion
What can we understand from this bond game is that even the health of citizens is at stake which should be the top priority of any government. As we could see COVID 19 which was called the medical emergency of century has made many companies billionaire even though the mortality rate was less than 1 % from the virus but the whole population was inoculated forcefully. Though the vaccination was voluntary but every citizen was called by higher authorities and some were grabbed and vaccinated by police officials and healthcare workers. The companies are producing substandard drug or may be doing cost cutting by putting half salt but charging higher and higher rates for profits. They are not paying taxes but can come clean by bribing government.
It is also understood that Electoral bond scam was a shock for many of the pharma companies and several questions have been raised in public domain. Not everyone did it for gains, some are victims too.
BY Kamal Pratap Singh
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