Be alert before taking a medicine. The one you are about to pop could be facing a global ban. <\/p>\n
Several medicines for pain, fever, constipation, diarrhoea, or depression face a ban in developed countries like the US, EU, Japan and Australia. Even small countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal have banned some. <\/p>\n
Though allowed for sale by Indian regulatory authorities, the fact that other countries have found their side-effects to be worrisome, and prohibited their sale; implies patients and doctors should be cautious. <\/p>\n
Experts say medicines get banned if their side-effects outweigh their benefits. <\/p>\n
Every medicine has some side-effects. But once the side-effects prove dangerous, regulatory systems in the developed world impose a ban, says Dr CM Gulhati, editor of monthly index of medical specialities (MIMS), a medical journal for doctors. <\/p>\n
Though the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has been talking about executing a prohibition in India on medicines facing a global ban, nothing much seems to have taken shape. <\/p>\n
The regulatory authorities here are weak. Unlike those in EU and US, says Dr Gopal Dabade, from the All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN). <\/p>\n
Impact on patients Since globally banned medicines are permitted in India, patients tend to suffer most, say doctors. Often doctors are unaware of harmful side-effects, nor the global ban, and end up prescribing such medicines for their patients, says Dr Gulhati. <\/p>\n
Then there is this tendency to self-medicate on part of patients that can prove hazardous. <\/p>\n
K Raghu, a marketing professional in Basaveswarnagar, has used the medicine nimesulide in the past to relieve himself of fever. <\/p>\n
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Your medicine may have been banned globally<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Be alert before taking a medicine. The one you are about to pop could be facing a global ban. Continue reading