1,600 combination drugs under govt lens, may face ban over safety issues

The government is planning another clampdown on fixed-dose combination (FDC) drugs, following a ban on more than 300 such medicines over safety issues last month. 

For the next round of the ban, the government is looking at combinations that were recommended for further investigation by the Chandrakant Kokate committee. Of the 1,600 FDC drugs that are under watch now, around 600 are learnt to be vitamins. 

The experts' panel had in 2016 recommended curbs on "irrational combinations" falling under the FDC category. The Kokate committee had observed that while there were some combination drugs that definitely lacked therapeutic value, the rationality of