Micronisation of acidity drug led to mishap at Dr Reddy’s

A gas leak at pharma major Dr Reddy’s Laboratories’ plant at Bollaram in Medak district of Andhra Pradesh killed two employees in the wee hours on Wednesday.

The deceased have been identified as Sridhar Reddy (38), a production chemist and Dipak Kumar Jena (22), a casual labourer from Orissa.

The accident occurred at the US Food and Drug Administration-approved plant which manufactures blockbuster omeprazole, an acidity and gas-fighting drug.

According to investigators and company sources, nitrogen used in the making the powder form of the drug leaked.

“At the time of the accident the deceased were handling the process of micronisation of omeprazole powder. Apart from these two persons, no others were affected. The incident happened in the “clean room” located in one of the production blocks. The access to that area has been restricted. Manufacturing in the rest of the facility is continuing as the problem is limited to that particular area. Investigations by multiple authorities including the factories inspectorate, the Drugs Control Administration, Hyderabad and the police are in progress,” the company said in a statement.

According to police, the mishap occurred in the wee hours and
a case has been registered under Section 304 of the IPC (causing death by negligence) and Section 22 of Dangerous Machines (regulation) Act (compensation to operator in case of death or injury) against the company management. No arrests in connection with the case have been made so far.

Though the authorities were not willing to share the details of the investigations, sources said that the focus of the investigation was more on the safety precautions and the director of factories would continue his investigation on Thursday as well.