NEW DELHI: India has banned the manufacture and sale of more than 300 combination medicines sold without approval from the central government, a senior health ministry official said on Saturday.
Fixed dose combinations are used worldwide to improve patients' compliance, as it is easier to get them to take one drug rather than several. But inconsistent enforcement of drug laws in India has led to the proliferation of hundreds of such combination medicines entering the market based on approval from regulators of individual states.
Nearly half the drugs sold in India in 2014 were combination medicines.
"Now based on responses (and) assessment of products, more than 300 drugs have been prohibited," KL Sharma, a joint secretary at the health ministry, told Reuters.