New Delhi: Supreme court will decided the fate of 349 fixed dose combition(FDC) medicines including well-known brands such as Corex cough syrup and Vicks Action 500 Extra those have been banned .
The Supreme Court, while entertaining an appeal of the Centre, has favoured re- examination of 349 FDC drugs, a ban on which was set aside by the Delhi high court.
The FDC medicines, which includes several anti-diabetes drugs, were banned by the Centre on March 10,2016 on the recommendation of the Kokate Committee. The ban as per the Section 26A of the Drugs & Cosmetics Act was on the grounds that they involved “risk” to humans and safer alternatives were available.
A division bench of justices R F Nariman and S K Kaul Friday set aside the high court order, saying that the requisite procedure prescribed in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act were not followed and ordered that these medicines be re-examined by the Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB).
It said that THE DTAB or its sub-committee appointed for this purpose would hear the drug manufacturers and also the the submissions from NGO All India Drugs Action Network.
The Delhi High Court had on December 1, 2016, allowed the petitions of various pharma and healthcare majors, like Pfizer, Glenmark, Procter &Gamble and Cipla challenging the government’s March 10 notification banning the FDCs, saying the decision was taken by the Centre without following procedure prescribed in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.
Some of the well-known medicines on which the ban on sale was lifted by the high court included Pfizer’s Corex cough syrup, Glaxo’s Piriton expectorant and Crocin Cold, P&G’s Vicks Action 500 Extra, Reckitt’s D’Cold, Piramal’s Saridon, Glenmark’s Ascoril and Alex cough syrups, Abbott’s Phensedyl cough syrup and Alembic’s Glycodin cough syrup.
