HC Reserves Judgement On Govt Ban On Oxytocin Mfg, Sale By Pvt Cos

NEW DELHI, 1 NOV 2018: The Delhi High Court has reserved its judgment on whether the manufacturing and sale of oxytocin by private companies should remain banned in India as per a government notification of Apr 27.

In the interim, however, the court has extended the stay on the government’s ban till Nov 30.

Private pharmaceutical companies had approached the court after the government issued a notification banning sale and manufacture of the drug from Sep 1.

The ban was challenged by pharmaceutical companies, which argued that the move was “arbitrary and unreasonable”.

Oxytocin is a hormonal formulation used by hospitals to induce labour in pregnant women, and to stop post-partum haemorrhage.

However, the drug is also abused by the animal husbandry industry to increase lactation in milch animals such as cows and buffaloes, and which has an adverse effect on their health, according to the lawyer representing the government.

To prevent shortage of oxytocin for use by hospitals, the government had then said that only KarnatakaAntibiotics & Pharmaceuticals Ltd, a state-run company, would be allowed to manufacture and distribute the formulation in India.

Though the government had in April recommended a blanket ban on manufacture and domestic sale of oxytocin by private companies, it later allowed them to manufacture the formulation, but only for export. Cogencis