BENGALURU: On the first day of the ban on retail sale of Oxytocin and its formulations, used to induce uterine contractions and control bleeding in childbirth, most nursing homes in the city were clueless.
While large hospitals are in a position to place orders in bulk with the sole public sector undertaking authorised by the union health ministry to manufacture the drug, it is the smaller nursing/maternity homes and clinics that are ill-equipped to stock the drug.
According to a release from the Union health ministry on Friday, no private manufacturer will be allowed to manufacture the drug for domestic use. Only Karnataka Antibiotics & Pharmaceuticals Ltd (KAPL), a public sector company, would be manufacturing this drug for domestic use. Oxytocin in any form or name will not be allowed to be sold through a retail chemist.
Since most nursing homes are in the practice of sending family members to get the life-saving drug for the patient from the nearest medical shop, they did not stock ampoules of oxytocin, duty doctors at the homes maintained. When The New Indian Express contacted Popular Nursing Home in Shivajinagar, Jayashree Nursing Home in Kumara Park West and Anugraha Nursing Home in Palace Guttahalli, the doctors manning the facility were unaware of the development and confirmed they did not maintain any stock of the drug.
The ban on the retail sale of the drug will have implications in remote and rural areas, said public health experts. Stricter regulation on the availability of the drug should have been the focus rather than a ban, they said.
Oxytocin was misused in the dairy industry to accelerate milk production.
Mukesh Kumar, General Manager, KAPL, said, “We have not received a single order yet. We can manufacture 4.5 lakh ampoules per day and the annual requirement in the country is 3 crore ampoules. Pre-pubescent girls were found to be injected with the drug to attain puberty faster and trafficked. It has been widely misused and hence the ban.”
He added: “There are 133 private manufacturers in the country and the stock is still available with the distributors. They are allowed to approach hospitals to liquidate their stocks. There is enough stock to last till August.”
Geeta Shivamurthy, medical superintendent, Vani Vilas Hospital, said, “We have 40 to 50 deliveries per month, including ones at the high-risk pregnancy centre. But we have stocks worth one-and-a-half month. Every woman is given oxytocin for placental separation especially after C-section to control the bleeding.”