As the date for DCGI's review meeting to take stock of his order to withdraw irrational combination drugs comes closer, more state drug controllers are falling in line. The latest is the Haryana government. The state drug department has issued notices to the drug manufacturers of the state to immediately stop production of irrational combination drugs.

According to information, the Haryana state drug department has issued notices to the drug manufacturers of the state asking them to stop production of 294 fixed dose combination drugs which were listed by the DCGI. The Haryana drug department has asked the drug manufacturers to treat the notice as show cause notice. Most of the drug units of the state are located in Karnal district of the state.

Other states which have already acted on the DCGI directive in this regard included Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, etc.

Though the DCGI had directed the state drug controllers to act fast on his order on FDC, several state drug authorities were hesitant in implementing the DCGI order. In fact, the DCGI had to apply his persuasive skills to persuade the state drug controllers to act on this issue. Still, several state drug controllers are yet to act on the DCGI order.

The DCGI is to review the action taken by the state drug controllers at a meeting on October 27 at NIPER in Chandigarh. Earlier, the DCGI had held regional level meetings of the state drug authorities in different parts of the country to convince them about the need to act promptly on his order. The DCGI had in June this year issued verbal directives to the state drug controllers asking them to withdraw licenses issued by them to the drug manufacturers for producing combination drugs.

But, the state drug departments did not react to the DCGI's verbal directive as they all waited for the written directive. The DCGI identified more than 1000 brands of combination drugs and sent it to the state drug controllers asking them to withdraw licenses to these products.

According to sources, several state drug controllers in the country are not happy the way the DCGI is going on the issue. They are of the view that the drug manufacturers should have been given some more time to withdraw the products from the market.