The Supreme Court has temporarily revoked the ban imposed on the sale of Saridon and two other drugs after the government had banned 328 combination drugs last week.
The apex court order comes in wake of a petition filed by the drug makers.
A SC bench of Justice Rohinton Nariman and Justice Indu Malhotra temporarily allowed the sale of Saridon, and two other drugs after the drug makers and pharma associations challenged recent notification issued by the Centre prohibiting the manufacture and sale of 328 Fixed Dose Combinations (FDCs) drugs.
SC allows the sale of Piramal Healthcare’s Saridon, GlaxoSmithKline’s Piriton and Juggat Pharma’s Dart.
Major pharma companies while challenging the centre’s decision claimed that the only reason given in the government’s notification was that the combination had “no therapeutic value”. They argued in the court that they are making the medicines since 1980s.
The apex court said the stay on the centre’s notification, banning these three drugs, remains till it decides on the issue.
The SC, however, did not grant any relief to the other medicines falling in the list of 328 FDC drugs, which were recently banned by the Health Ministry.
The Health Ministry’s decision was based on the country’s top drug advisory body, the Drug Technical Advisory Board.
