List of 26 medicines including popular antacid salt Ranitidine have been taken off by the centre over rising cancer causing concerns.
Ranitidine is most commonly given for acidity and stomachacheike issues. It was sold under the brand names Rantac, Aciloc and Zinetac among others.
The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday issues a new National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) of 384 drugs after excluding 26 medicines from the list. These 26 medicines will not exist the country anymore.
Here is the 26 removed medicines:
Alteplase, Atenolol, Bleaching Powder, Capreomycin, Cetrimide, Chlorpheniramine, Diloxanide furoate, Dimercaprol, Erythromycin, Ethinylestradiol, Ethinylestradiol(A) Norethisterone (B), Ganciclovir, Kanamycin, Lamivudine (A) + Nevirapine (B) + Stavudine (C), Leflunomide, Methyldopa, Nicotinamide, Pegylated interferon alfa 2a, Pegylated interferon alfa 2b, Pentamidine, Prilocaine (A) + Lignocaine (B), Procarbazine, Ranitidine, Rifabutin, Stavudine (A) + Lamivudine (B), Sucralfate and White Petrolatum.
Ranitidine was under surveillance for a long time throughout the world and for which the Health Ministry discussed all the details regarding the medicines with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)and Drugs Controller General of India for removing them out of the list of essential medicines.
The salt is being scrutinized beginning around 2019 when the US-based Food and Drug Administration found plausible cancer causing impurity in the medication. Drug controllers found cancer causing impurity N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) at “unacceptable levels” in examples of medications containing ranitidine.
In 1998, Zantac was the first drugs in the world to top $1 billion in year sales.
In the mean time, with the development of new list of essential medicines, the prices for many high-demand medicines across India including anti-diabetic drugs such as insulin glargine, antipaeasite such as ivermectin and anti-tuberculosis drugs such as delamanid may become low.
