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Ban on oxytocin likely to be lifted
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- The Drug Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) has recommended to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare that the ban on the retail sale of the life-saving drug, oxytocin may be lifted.
- The DTAB in its meeting recommended that the Health and Family Welfare Ministry’s notification on April 27 banning retail sale of the drug formulation oxytocin may be amended and that its sale and distribution for human use under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 and Rules 1945 be continued.
- The ban had been imposed citing the serious misuse of oxytocin in the dairy sector.
- While it recommended lifting of the ban the DTAB has not said anything about the Ministry’s decision (vide notification dated June 27) that only a single PSU — Karnataka Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals Ltd. — could manufacture and supply the drug across the country.
Welcome move
- The DTAB recommendation has brought immense relief to gynaecologists and obstetricians who had said that the ban on retail sale of the drug could affect its availability in hospitals and clinics in rural areas where more women were likely to bleed to death post-partum in labour rooms.
- It is certainly a welcome decision.
- But the fact that a single PSU, KAPL, which has never manufactured oxytocin, continues to hold the monopoly in the manufacture, distribution and sale of an essential drug like this raises important questions.
- Also, nothing has been said about the pricing of oxytocin by KAPL — at ₹17.78 (including GST) per five IU vial when several private pharma firms were earlier supplying it for as low as ₹4.82.
- Several concerns remain still.
Oxytocin
- Oxytocin is a naturally-occurring hormone that causes uterine contractions during labour and helps new mothers lactate.
- But its misuse is widespread in the dairy industry where livestock are injected with oxytocin to make them release milk at a time convenient to farmers.
- The hormone is also used to increase the size of vegetables such as pumpkins, watermelons, brinjals, gourds and cucumbers.
Source
The Hindu