The health ministry has banned the manufacture, sale and distribution of a total of 328 fixed dosage combinations (FDCs) of drugs and later added another 6 to the list. This decision brought the end to a long legal court battle that has been going on since 2016 to get rid of these unsafe and irrational drugs from the streets.
With this decision of health ministry, an estimation of around 6000 brands was affected and among these were the popular brands like painkiller Saridon, the skin cream Panderm, combination diabetes drug Gluconorm PG, antibiotic Lupidiclox and also antibacterial Taxim Az.
“The banned FDCs alone account for Rs2,500 crore and represent on the tip of the iceberg. In our estimate, the market for unsafe, problematic FDCs in India is one-fourth of the total pharma market which is valued at Rs 1.3 trillion”, said the AIDAN in a statement.
This case also sought a review of all FDCs in the market, which was recommended by the Kotake Committee, constituted by the health ministry to examine all present FDCs in the market currently. Meanwhile, the major drug manufacturing companies have claimed that they have phased out all the banned FDCs and only 2% of them remain.

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