Several drugs banned in US, Europe freely marketed in India

Several drugs, banned for their serious side effects in developed nations like US, Canada and European Union, are freely available in the country. Though the list of such drugs is long, the latest among them is a combination drug of flupenthixol and melitracen, sold under the brand name of Deanxit.

The product has been banned in the above countries for its serious adverse drug reactions. According to sources, though melitracen, one of the two ingredients in Deanxit is not approved in India, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) is learnt to have cleared the combination reportedly without mandatory clinical trials. 

The sources said that the drug is being aggressively promoted for a wide range of known and unknown disorders such as psychogenic depression, depressive neuroses, masked depression, menopausal depression, dysphoria in alcoholics and drug addicts etc without mandatory clearance from the DCGI.