Mumbai, 17 Jan: Even as the controversial drugs nimesulide (for use of below 12 years of age), cisapride, phenylpropanolamine and human placenta extracts are being banned in the country in a matter of some days, another set of controversial medicines, gatifloxacine, tegaserod and deanxit may also become a history in the country soon.
The Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB), the highest decision-making body under the union health ministry on technical matters related to health issues, is reviewing gatifloxacine, tegaserod and deanxit. �The DTAB is on the verge of finalising its recommendations on these medicines and eventually all these drugs may also be banned in the country due to its adverse effects on human health�, sources said.
Earlier, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) decided to put these controversial drugs under the radar of the DTAB in the wake of serious concerns raised by the medical experts in the country over the adverse effects of these drugs on human health.
Due to 10-fold increased risk of heart attacks and stroke, tegaserod used in the short term treatment of irritable bowel syndrome in females and chronic constipation in men and women has been banned globally, but the drug was available in India under different brand names like Ibsinorm (Sun Pharma), Tegibs (Torrent), Tegaspa (Lupin), Tagon (Intas), Tegod (Cipla) Tibs-6 (Hetero), Irbez (Emcure), etc, as there has been no action against the medicine by the concerned authorities.
Deanxit is also freely available in India, even though the fixed-dose combination of flupenthixol and melitracen, sold under the brand name of deanxit, has been banned in advanced countries due to the health hazards. Though melitracen, one of the two ingredients in deanxit is not approved in India, the DCGI is learnt to have cleared the combination drug reportedly without mandatory clinical trials in India. The drug is being aggressively promoted for a wide range of known and unknown disorders such as psychogenic depression, depressive neuroses, masked depression, menopausal depression, dysphoria in alcoholics and drug addicts, etc without mandatory clearance from the DCGI. Incidentally, deanxit is banned both in Denmark which is the country of its origin and other developed countries like US, UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, etc.
Same is the story of antibiotic drug gatifloxacine.
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