Drug manufacturers ask for time from govt to sell out their piled stocks

Dehradun, Mar 21 (KNN) The Indian Government has banned as many as 344 drugs after a panel of experts found that they posed a health risk. The industry is saying that since they are left with no option but to stop manufacturing of those drugs once the order comes, all that they need is time to avoid loss.

Talking to KNN, the Vice Chairman of Confederation of Indian Pharmaceutical Industry (CIPI) Ashok Windlass said that, “We have to bear huge losses ever since the decision came because there is crores of stock which is struck in the pipeline.”

“Government once said to us that they want to regularise the industry so it wants to ban certain drugs having combination of two or more salts on which we agreed,” he revealed.

The entrepreneur pointed that the Ayurvedic drugs also have many such combinations but only because they are “Ayurvedic” they are speared by the government, he alleged.

The drugs which have been banned now have been selling in the market since long and are being prescribed by the doctors too, he said.

The Senior Official from CIPI, however, demanded for sufficient time for the manufacturers to finish with their piled stock.

Meanwhile, he said that case is still pending before the Delhi High court.

Over the last week, the Delhi high court stayed a ban imposed on several FDC drugs. The first of these orders came on Tuesday last week, when Pfizer’s cough syrup Corex was allowed back in the market after a stay on the ban. Wockhardt Ltd, GlaxoSmithKline Asia Pvt. Ltd and Griffon Pvt. Ltd, Abbott India and Macleods Pharma, Procter and Gamble Hygiene and Health Care (P&G), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Reckitt Benckiser, Piramal Enterprises Ltd and Alembic Pharma Ltd are others who have been allowed relief by the Delhi high court.

CIPI official called the move as ‘Tuglaki Farmaan’ and said that at last the patients have to suffer. (KNN Bureau)