Are you aware that some of the painkillers and common cold remedies that you might be consuming are drugs that have been banned globally?
Are you aware that some of the painkillers, anti-diarrhoeals and common cold remedies that you might be consuming randomly are drugs that have been banned globally?
Commonly used medicine brands like Enteroquinol, Furoxone (anti-diarrhoeal), Novalgin (pain killer), Nise, Nimulid (pain killer, fever), DCold, Vicks Action 500 (cold), Droperol (anti-depressant), are banned worldwide. Their side effects outweigh their benefits, says the March 31, 2009 issue of Monthly Index of Medical Specialties (MIMS), a reference book for medical practitioners.
The ban is not just in the US and the UK but also in nations like Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Vietnam.
Chandra M Gulhati, editor, MIMS, claims that some of these drugs garner in per annum sales anywhere from Rs 4 crore for cisapride (used for constipation) to Rs200 crore for nimesulide. Others like analgin (pain killer) have believed annual sales of Rs20 crore, while phenylpropanolamine (used in the manufacturing of medications for cold) has around Rs100 crore worth of sales. The domestic medicine market is worth Rs34,000 crore.
The real issue, says Gulhati, is that India allows the manufacture, distribution and sales of such drugs. These drugs were banned because they cause side effects such as brain haemorrhage (phenylpropanolamine) to irregular heart beat (cisapride) to liver damage (nimesulide).
SM Sapatnekar, former administrator of the Maharashtra Medical Council, pointed out that 90% of Indians prescribe medicines for themselves. Nalin Nag, senior consultant, internal medicine, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi, said, “Chemists should notdispense prescription medicines without a prescription,” he added.
The drugs controller general of India (DCGI) approves or bans drugs. Current DCGI Surinder Singh couldn’t be reached by phone and an email sent to him failed to elicit any response.
Drug authorities say no drug is banned unless an adverse drug reaction (ADR) is reported. But Gulhati said ADR reportage is nearly non-existent in India. For instance, Nimesulide was banned based on ADR reported worldwide, including 109 in Finland, 83 in Belgium, 33 in Switzerland, and 25 in Ireland, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Pharmaceutical Newsletter. But not a single ADR on nimesulide was reported in India.
Gulhati says ADR is non-existent in India because doctors do not maintain proper patient records nor seek patient information about use of medications, dosage, etc. “Without this, it is difficult to determine ADR and best to accept the ADR findings reported from Western sources.”
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