The Delhi High Court on Friday suspended for a month the Centre’s ban on private companies manufacturing and distributing oxytocin, a drug used to induce labour during childbirth and control bleeding after it.
A Bench of Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and A.K. Chawla gave the interim order on pleas challenging the government’s ban, which was slated to come into effect from Saturday. It listed the case for September 12 for further arguments.
The government in April restricted private companies from manufacturing or supplying the drug to prevent its alleged misuse in the dairy sector, where it was injected into animals to increase their milk production.
As per the Centre’s notification, the State-run Karnataka Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals Ltd (KAPL) was solely allowed by the Centre to make the drug meet the country’s needs.
The court noted that the material placed before it showed that when the decision was taken in February this year to restrict the sale of oxytocin, KAPL was not licensed to manufacture the drug and it was issued one only this April.
The court was hearing pleas of BGP Products Operations GmbH, a subsidiary of Mylan Laboratories, Neon Laboratories and NGO All India Drug Action Network, which works to ensure access to essential medicines.
‘Arbitrary notification’
The NGO contended in its plea that it would not be advisable to depend on one company alone, especially when it allegedly has not made the product earlier.
The petitioners claimed that the sudden issuance of the April 27 notification was arbitrary and also without application of mind.
