JK Flooded With Risky Combination Drugs: DAK

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Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) Tuesday said that the state of Jammu and Kashmir is flooded with unsafe combination drugs putting lives of people at risk.

Terming the situation alarming, President DAK Dr
drugsNisar ul Hassan in a statement said that 40% of the fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) in the market are irrational and these risky combinations are jeopardizing public health.

“There are thousands of brands of unhealthy combinations and pharma companies continue to promote them and are luring medical practitioners to prescribe them,” he said adding over the years, efforts to weed out irrational FDCs have proved futile as attempts to withdraw them were countered by powerful pharma industry.

A recent study published in Journal of Public Library of Sciences revealed 73% of NSAID (painkiller) and 81% of antidepressant combinations were marketed in India without approval, Dr Nisar said.

“Antibiotic combinations like ciprofloxacin + metronidazole are contributing to the development of resistant strains of bacteria which is a serious public health problem,” Dr Nisar said.

He added that pharma companies continue to reap the benefits from huge sales of irrational multivitamin combinations which can be bought without presenting a prescription.

Though JK has formulated its own essential medicines list but the drugs have not been made available because of which the proliferation of undesirable combinations continues unabated, he concluded.(Agencies)

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