We are nearing the post-antibiotic era, which basically means our body will no longer be able to fight bacterial infections, because we’ll develop resistance to all antibiotics known to man.
What’s worse?
Multinational companies in India are producing and selling antibiotics which are unregulated as per a new study, according to a Times of India report.
The study, carried out by researchers at the Queen Mary University of London and Newcastle University, states that this could worsen the growing problem of antibiotic resistance in India and is a severe blow to the efforts made globally to fight antimicrobial resistance.
As per the study, huge numbers of antibiotic pills that are available in the Indian markets, are unregulated not only in India, but also in UK and US.
Of these, only 4% were approved in the US or UK.
Sale or supply of unregulated or unapproved drugs is illegal in India and globally, India has the highest rates of antibiotic consumption and antimicrobial resistance.
The FDC antibiotics were sold under more than 3,300 brand names and manufactured by more than 500 pharmaceutical companies, as per the study.
Some of the manufacturers who produce 45% of the 188 FDCs under 148 brand names are: Abbott, Astra Zeneca, Baxter, Bayer, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmith-Kline, Merck/MSD, Novartis and Pfizer.
The FDCs manufactured by the multinational companies were found to have no record of any CDSCO approval.
As per the study, FDCs comprised one third of total antiobiotic sales in India by 2011-12. Of these, 34.5% were unapproved.
The research was published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and the report is expected to be made available to the public on February 5.
(With inputs from TOI)
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