The government has banned popular cold medicines such as 'Crocin Cold and Flu' and 'D-Cold Total' - fixed dose combinations (FDC) involving paracetamol and other molecules. These were among the drug combinations that the government banned last week, but all the names did not get disclosed at that point.
The government banned 344 drug combinations over the weekend, including codeine-based cough syrup sold by Pfizer and Abbott, after a government panel of experts found they had 'no therapeutic justification'.
Even though 'Crocin Cold and Flu' has been banned, the GSK spokesperson clarified that Crocin (company's main brand) has not been banned by the government.
The government last weekend also banned other popular drugs such as Sumo, Oflox, Dolo and Nimulid. According to an analysis done by AIOCD AWACS, a market research entity formed by the All Indian Origin Chemists & Distributors, Indian pharmaceutical industry is going to take a hit of Rs 3000 crore due to the government ban.
According to its analysis, the top five companies which are going to take the hit are Abbott, Pfizer, Macleods, Glenmark and Mankind.
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted interim injunction to Abbott on the government prohibition on the sale of its cough syrup. Glenmark and Macleods also received such injuctions, regarding their drug bans, on Tuesday.
The judge in the court granted an interim stay to the pharmaceutical companies and said regulators should take "no coercive steps" against them. The case will now be heard on March 21. US drugmaker Pfizer had on Monday won a similar reprieve on a ban on its cough syrup Corex.
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