India Pharmacists Ban Sales Of Combo Drugs With Safety Issues (India)
This article was originally published in PharmAsia News
Executive Summary
Despite a court stay against a proposed government ban on combination drugs, most of India's retail pharmacists plan to refuse to sell them. The All India Organization of Chemists and Druggists, which represents two-thirds of pharmacists in India, said it was following a directive of the regulatory authority to withdraw licenses of combination drugs that failed to comply with quality standards. The drugs, which account for more than 10 percent of retail pharmacy drug sales in the country, had been approved without having undergone proper quality-safety tests. Regulators count 186 new applications for the combinations that involve combining two or more already-approved drugs into a single formulation, and 50 of them have been rejected so far because of inadequate proof of quality and efficacy. (Click here for more