Govt Bans Export of Paracetemol, vitamins, and other key drugs, details

New Delhi: Wih cases of coronavirus being reported from various parts of the country, the Government has made amendments in the export policy and restricted export of specified APIs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) and formulations made from these APIs.

A notification issued by Directorate General of Foreign Trade, M/o Commerce and Industry says that the restrictions will come into immediate effect and until further orders. The notification covers the following APIs and formulations made from these APIs:

• Paracetamol,
• Tinidazole,
• Metronidazole,
• Acyclovir,
• Vitamin B1,
• Vitamin B6,
• Vitamin B12,
• Progesterone,
• Chloramphenicol,
• Erythromycin Salts,
• Neomycin,
• Clindamycin Salts,
• Ornidazole

It is widely known India is heavily dependent on China for import of key APIs and KSM and because of the wake of COVID-19, it has created a concern that the supplies of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) / Key Starting Materials (KSM) from China might be disrupted, resulting in a shortage of medicines in the country.

The rise of Coronavirus has raised concerns on the availability of API's and API's formulations.

Medical Dialogues has earlier reported that in the light of coronavirus outbreak worldwide, the apex drug regulator National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had identified 58 significant APIs for monitoring of their availability to prevent any shortage of drugs in India and to take preventive measures over illegal hoarding and black-marketing in the country.

For the same Rajesh K. Agrawal, Director (M&E), had directed all importers of APIs/manufacturers of formulations and APIs/ stockists to submit information about these drugs in the prescribed format.

Read also: Covid-19 Impact: NPPA Asks Drugmakers To Submit Availablility Data Of 58 APIs, Details

Recently, Indian drugmaker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd reported a shortage of its generic version of hypertension drug pindolol, due to a lack of pharmaceutical ingredients while stressing the shortfall does not stem from China.

"At the moment, we haven't seen any major disruption in API supplies due to the coronavirus outbreak in China," Sun Pharma reiterated, without giving details on the reasons for the shortfall in pindolol ingredients.

Read Also: Shortage of generic version of BP drug pindolol, says Sun Pharma