New Delhi : Office of the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has asked the drug controllers of Maharashtra and Delhi to initiative prosecution against those found selling the banned drugs of rosiglitazone, gatifloxacin and tegaserod.

The teams comprising officials of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) had raided 143 drug outlets including hospitals and chemist shops in Delhi, Bhiwadi in Rajasthan and in Maharashtra some time back and found the sale of banned drugs.

Some drugs like gatifloxacin formulation for systemic use in human by any route including oral and injectable and tegaserod and its formulations were banned by the Central Government by the Gazette Notification GSR 218(E) dated 16th March, 2011. Another drug namely rosiglitazone was banned earlier by the Gazette Notification GSR 910(E) dated 12.11.2010.

The DCGI had written to all State Drugs Controllers on 28.03.2011 to ensure that the manufacturing licences granted in their States for manufacture of the said drugs formulations are cancelled with immediate effect and the formulations recalled from the market on top priority. They were also asked to direct the chemists and druggists to stop the sale of these formulations with immediate effect and return the unused stocks to the manufacturers.

Source: Pharmabiz