MUMBAI: The health ministry on Monday moved the Supreme Court challenging a Delhi High Court order that had revoked its ban of over 300 fixed dose combination drugs.
The petition comes almost two months after the Delhi HC on December 2 set aside the government notification that had banned hundreds of fixed dose combination (FDC) drugs, or medicines made by combining two drugs into into a single dose.
The government previously had also filed a transfer petition asking for all pending FDC petitions to be transferred to the Supreme Court, which is yet to make a decision on whether it will permit this transfer petition.
The health ministry last year had banned 344 FDCs, estimated to affect around 6,000 medicine brands and shave off more than Rs 3,000 crore from the Indian pharmaceuticals market, which is estimated at over Rs 100,000 crore.
The government and the industry were at loggerheads over the move, with the health ministry arguing it acted in public interest based on an expert committee that found those drugs to be “irrational” and “unsafe” for consumption, and the industry claiming that marketing approvals for for these combo drugs were granted after following all the procedures.
The ban had impacted several popular brands including Corex, Phensedyl, Saridon, D’Cold Total and Vicks Action 500 Extra.
- [“source-smallbiztrends”]
