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The government has banned popular cold medicines such as ‘Crocin Cold and Flu’ and ‘D-Cold Total’. These were among the drug combinations that the government banned last week but all the names did not get disclosed at that point.
The government banned 344 drug combinations over the weekend, including codeine-based cough syrup by Pfizer and Abbott, after a government panel of experts said these had ‘no therapeutic justification’.
Crocin Cold and Flu is a small portion of the Crocin brand, with its market share in single digit, according to industry estimates. Though ‘Crocin Cold and Flu’ have been banned, GlaxoSmithKline spokesperson said Crocin (company’s main brand) was not banned.
The government also banned other popular drugs such as Sumo and Oflox. According to an analysis by the AIOCD AWACS, a market research entity, the Indian pharmaceutical industry is going to take a Rs 3,000-crore loss due to the ban. According to the analysis, top five companies which are going to take the hit are — Abbott, Pfizer, Macleods, Glenmark and Mankind.
The Delhi high court on Tuesday granted interim injunction to the government ban on Abbott on sale of its cough syrup. Glenmark and Macleods also received such injuctions on Tuesday.
The court granted an interim stay to the pharmaceutical companies and said regulators should take "no coercive steps" against them. The case will be heard on Tuesday. US drugmaker Pfizer had on Monday won a similar reprieve on a ban on its cough syrup Corex.
