Ban on combo medicines lifted but chemists reluctant to sell.
Sixty-year-old Vile Parle resident Smita Shah (name changed) has lately been suffering from extreme palpitations and breathlessness due to increased anxiety.
Worse still, Shah is not able to procure the anti-depression drug combination of flupenthixol and melitracen. “Shah is not responding to other drug combinations as well. She thinks about impending doom and palpitations but no medicine to relieve her is available,” said Dr Harish Shetty, a city-based psychiatrist.
Psychiatrists say that the ban on the drug combination by the health ministry in June this year has been stayed by the Karnataka High Court in August.
This means the drug can be made available throughout the country. “Though the ban on the drug was stayed, the drug is not available in chemist shops. All patients have to do is to consume two tablets after breakfast. Unavailability of drugs and few effective alternatives are creating trouble for patients,” said Dr Hozefa Bhinderwala, consulting psychiatrist, Saifee Hospital, Charni Road.
“Of all patients diagnosed with depression and anxiety, up to 10% respond very well to the combination where alternatives don’t work,” he said.
Chemists stopped stocking the drug combination in June this year, after the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) banned the drug, along with 14 other combinations — some of them used to treat diabetes and others painkillers.
“Even though the ban has been stayed, we have not been issued a circular to that effect. We have not been prescribing the drug as we don’t want to run into trouble with the FDA,” said Mahesh Chedda, owner of Chedda Pharmacy, Ghatkopar East.
Psychiatrists say they could not comprehend the contention behind banning this effective combination by the CDSCO in the first place.
“It’s a good anti-anxiety drug and is largely not addictive. The unavailability of the drug can hit patients hard, especially when widely abused anti-depressant drugs like Alprazalom and Nitrazepam are freely available in the market,” said Dr Shetty.
Market dynamics
In January, CDSCO ordered a six-month probe to test the efficacy and side-effects of anti-depressant drug combination flupenthixol melitracin.
In June, the health ministry issued a circular to ban the drug combo.
In August, the Karnataka high court stayed the ban on drug.
Chemists are still not stocking the drug as CDSCO has not issued a circular that the ban has been lifted .
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