Ban on painkiller may be withdrawn amid pressure

Amid mounting pressure, it is likely that the Central Government might withdraw ban on dextropropoxyphene, a drug used for spasmodic pains.

According to sources with the Kerala Drugs Control Department, a meeting of Drugs Technical Advisory Board held in the Capital recently decided to lift the ban.  “There are unconfirmed reports that the meeting concluded that the ban on dextropropoxyphene was a hasty decision. It is likely to be lifted on Monday or Tuesday,” they said.

The manufacture,  sale and distribution of dextropropoxyphene was banned in June in the wake of a report submitted by the Drugs Technical Advisory Board. 

It was suspended under Section 26A of the Drugs and Cosmetic Act, 1940. “The meeting decided that the ban was imposed without conducting an in-depth analysis on the subject,” they said. The sources said there is tremendous pressure on the government to lift the ban. Representatives of the Indian Association of Paliiative Care (IAPC), WHO Collaborating Centre for Community Participation in Palliative and Long Term Care at the Institute of Palliative Medicine in Calicut and the WHO Collaborating Centre for Policy and Training in Access to Pain Relief at Pallium India, Thiruvananthapuram, had sent a petition to the Principal Secretary of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, seeking a reversal of the ban.

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