The Delhi High Court on Friday set aside the Centre’s decision to ban private firms from making and selling oxytocin, a drug which induces labour and controls bleeding during child birth. Oxytocin is also administered to pregnant women to prevent and treat postpartum haemorrhage (PPH). PPH accounts for about 35 per cent of all maternal deaths, as per the World Health Organisation (WHO).
A bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and A K Chawla quashed the government’s April 27 notification imposing the ban. As per the notification, the state-run Karnataka Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals Ltd (KAPL) was the only entity allowed to make the drug.
The court also observed that the Centre’s decision to allow only a single state-run entity with no prior experience to manufacture the drug, which has wide public use, was fraught with potential adverse consequences.