The
government is planning to ban a popular Anti-Anxiety drug that has been
commonly used in India for over a decade. The drug is used without any
clinical trials and despite the fact it is banned in several other
countries.
TIME magazine describes this
decade as the "Age of Anxiety" and 4 out of 10 Indians suffer from
anxiety related disorders according to the Indian Council of Medical
Research.The Health Ministry is considering a
ban on the commonly-used anti-anxiety drug Deanxit, for potential
addiction and because it can sometimes provoke suicidal thoughts and
nightmares.Psychiatrist, Bombay Hospital Dr
Sharita Shah, said "In India, its not just psychiatrists who are using
it, there are a lot of other doctors, like the GP, cardiologists,
everyone prescribes it. So, it is popular, and patients also tend to
overdose, once you write a prescription, the patients tend to take the
drug on their own, and don’t come back to the doctors."
Deanxit
enjoys a Rs 35 crore annual market in India itself. But what is
disturbing, given those serious side-effects is that India is one of the
few countries to even allow its usage.
Deanxit
is banned for use in the country of it’s origin, Denmark. The US FDA,
Drug Authorities in UK , Canada, Australia or Japan , have not approved
this drug either. For such a drug, no clinical trials were carried out
in India.
Taking note of
these points, the Health Ministry has NOW setup a panel of medical
experts to probe the side effects of this drug. But the bigger question
is, who is responsible for the health of those patients who took this
medicine for all this while?
Drug
Expert, Editor MIMS Dr CM Gulati said “Why on Earth did the DCGI
approve it? What were they thinking? Plus it is highly immoral and
unethical on the drug company's part to sell a drug in India, which is
banned in it’s country of origin! So, two major violations took place
here.”
