Karnataka's Food Safety and Drugs Administration (FSDA) has cancelled the licences of 16 pharmaceutical retailers and wholesalers and suspended those of eight others as part of an ongoing investigation into the alleged distribution and sale of spurious drugs. The action follows an August 18 raid on a farmhouse in Bidadi, Bengaluru South district, where the department said it uncovered an unlicensed drug repacking and relabelling operation. During the raid, drugs, injection-filling machinery, forged labels and stamps and other materials worth ₹5.05 crore were seized.

As part of the follow-up investigation, the FSDA said it cancelled 16 drug licences and suspended eight others belonging to retailers and wholesalers allegedly involved in the distribution and sale of the spurious medicines. The licence of a pharmaceutical company's wholesale depot in Kempanalinganahalli, Nelamangala taluk,…