Demand for ban on drugs containing codeine rejected

New Delhi, Mar 5 (UNI) Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss today rejected a suggestion to ban medicines containing codeine rpt codeine.

Mr Ramadoss said the medicine was useful in many areas of treatment and used world over. ''No country has so far banned it.'' He was replying to supplementaries in the Lok Sabha during Question Hour, when Mr Laxminarayan Pandey, BJP, asked whether he agreed the medicine had side effects on human health and cough syrups containing codeine rpt codeine were being sold without medical prescription.

Mr Ramadoss said the syrups containing codeine rpt codeine had been kept under schedule H and therefore, should only be sold under medical prescription.

''If any instance was brought to the notice of the Government that the drug was being sold without a prescription, strict action would be taken against the chemist.'' He asserted codeine rpt codeine was useful in formulations for cough, pain killers and diarrhoea and he did not see any reason why it should be banned.

The Minister, however, said codeine was found to be harmful for pregnant women and lactating mothers as its side effects are passed on to the child. Therefore, all formulations containing codeine rpt codeine had a warning that it should not be used by pregnant women and lactating mothers.

UNI KAS Mir KP1402