Amlodipine & perindopril, amlodipine & indapamide, and perindopril & indapamide achieved blood pressure control in 70 percent of patients to less than 140/90 mm Hg in six months.
The medical rationale behind fixed-dose combination drugs soon gave into commercial interests that cared little for the health of patients. Government's only response has been to keep issuing ban orders since 1983.
Study by researchers from UK, India & Qatar was published this month, suggests unapproved fixed-dose combination drugs should be withdrawn and no longer manufactured.
Combination of enmetazobactam, invented by scientists associated with Chennai-based pharma firm Orchid Pharma in 2008, and antibiotic cefipime is used to treat severe bacterial infection.
Following December notice prohibiting combination of chlorpheniramine maleate & phenylephrine hydrochloride, CDSCO has ‘decided to rope in paediatricians to review other permitted FDCs’.
Popular brands using combinations under the scanner include D Cold Total and Dolo Cold. The five FDCs are part of 344 drug combinations that the government had first banned in 2016.
Govt’s moves to curb irrational fixed-dose combinations may have been insufficient & lack enforcement, say researchers. Study published in Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice.
The NPPA observations came this week as it took up applications to fix the prices of 34 new drugs, most of which were fixed-dose combination medicines or drug cocktails.
The safety of these fixed drug combinations will be monitored regularly and any failure on the manufacturers' part to submit a periodic safety update will be deemed illegal.
India’s foreign policy today is driven less by Western alignment or global liberalism and more by domestic political imperatives — economic, ideological, and electoral.
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