8 held for Semaglutide theft from Dr Reddy's lab; 2 cr drug seized
Srikakulam: The JR Puram police in Srikakulam district have arrested a gang of eight individuals, including four employees of Dr Reddy's Laboratories, in connection with the theft of about 460 grams of Semaglutide (GLP-1), a patented anti-diabetic drug worth over ₹2 crore.
The drug was stolen from the company's warehouse at Pydibheemavaram for sale in the black market.
Those arrested include Dr Reddy's chemists Dronadulu Suresh (31), N Appala Naidu (28), and Gollapalli Kantarao (35); warehouse staffer G V Raghavendra (33); and four others with pharma backgrounds in Hyderabad: G Suresh Reddy (40), A Tirupati (32), K Balakrishna (33), and B Naveen Kumar (33).
The police said Semaglutide is an anti-diabetic medication used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and an anti-obesity medication used for long-term weight management.
It is a peptide similar to the hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), modified with a side chain.It can be administered by subcutaneous injection or taken orally. Basically it was the patent product of Dr Reddy's Laboratories and the product was meant for export to foreign countries.
Srikakulam district police chief KV Maheswara Reddy said the GLP-1 drug was produced at Dr Reddy's Lab production unit and subsequently stored in the freezer room of the FG warehouse on February 17, 2025.
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Staff members later discovered that the medicine had been stolen from the freezer room on February 23, 2025. The drug can be sold by only patent persons. However, the drug has high value in the black market.
Based on the complaint, the police formed three teams to solve the offences. The JR Puram police inspector M Avatharam along with his team sub-inspector S Chiranjeevi and G Laxman Rao investigated the case in multiple angles to identify the culprits.
The investigation revealed that Raghavendra stole the drug from the warehouse. Later, he gave it to Appal Naidu, Suresh and Kantarao for sale of the drug in the black market. The trio gave the stolen drug to Tirupati and later it was handed over to Suresh Reddy in Hyderabad for sale.
Suresh Reddy had previously worked with a pharma company and he has links with some persons involved in selling of drugs in the black market.
However, he also failed to trade the stolen chemical that led to disputes among the gang. When Raghavendra asked Suresh Reddy to return the drug, he cheated them by giving fake Semaglutide powder.
The police nabbed all the eight persons in connection with the case and recovered around 440 gram of stolen Semaglutide powder and 460 gms of fake Semaglutide powder from them.
Police said during the audit, staff observed that 3.38 kg of Palladium Acetate, valued at over 60 lakh and stored at the warehouse within the production unit of Dr Reddy's Lab, had been stolen in May this year.
Palladium acetate, or palladium(II) acetate, is a chemical compound.It is a red-brown solid and is widely used as a catalyst in various organic reactions, particularly cross coupling reactions like Suzuki and Heck reactions. The police said the same gang was involved in the case and the investigation is on to recover the stolen chemical from them.
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