PANJIM: The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has banned about 350 Fixed Dose Combination (FDC) drugs under Section 26 A of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, which prohibits the manufacture for sale, sale and distribution for human use with immediate effect. These banned FDCs include popular brand cough syrups, cough suppressants for children and adults, anti-diabetics, pain killers and various other drugs that were in use.
An expert committee set up by the Union government to look into the sale of these drugs found them “unsafe” for human consumption and hence they were banned. Sources in this trade said that, “about 500 more FDCs are under scrutiny and we will not be surprised if they too are banned in very near future.”
Prasad Tamba, President of the Chemist and Druggists Association of Goa (CDAG), said, “We welcome this bold step taken by the Union government, which was long overdue as some of these drugs were irrational FDCs and were prone to causing anti-microbial resistance and in some cases because of high toxicity which could have lead to organ failures.”
However, CDAG was of the opinion that the ban of these 350 FDCs could have been done in a better way. “It should have started with the manufacturers as they are the ones who will suffer extensive monetary loss. It is estimated that the net loss to the manufacturing companies due to recall of these medicines would not be less than Rs 3000 crore in India,” added Albert De Sa, Chairman of the Wholesalers Association.
A notice was circulated to all retailers, wholesalers of drugs in Goa by the Director of Food and Drugs Administration Salim Veljee on Monday to comply with the notification issued by the Union Health ministry. “As soon as we received the notice we stopped selling those drugs and efforts are on to return it to the manufacturers. We are also ensuring that the State Health Directorate is kept in the loop. We also request retailers to comply with the notification strictly. Also, we are requesting physicians to set aside their ‘pen habit’ and refrain from prescribing these banned drugs,” Tamba said. About five per cent of the total Rs 50 crore sale of drugs in Goa per month will be affected by this notification.
CDAG members are also concerned that they will have to “educate their customers” and sought help from doctors and physicians by not prescribing the banned drugs. “I am confident that bodies like Medical Council of India (MCI) and Indian Medical Association (IMA) will come forward, hold seminars to update all physicians,” Tamba said.
