The pharmaceutical companies in Maharashtra have stopped production of all notified irrational combination products in compliance with order issued by the state Food and Drug Administration. The state FDA had issued had served notices on the drug manufacturers a month back to stop production of the combination drugs.

According to senior officials in the state FDA, all the manufacturers in the state have complied the order and have stopped production. The FDA had listed 330 combination drugs. "As per the feedback we have received from the joint commissioners of all the seven divisions of the state namely Mumbai, Pune, Konkan, Aurangabad, Nasik, Nagpur and Amravati, the drug manufacturers have stopped producing these items," the official said.

He said the drug manufacturers have no other option but to stop production as manufacturing a product without FDA permission will warrant legal action. The directors of the company can be prosecuted and also can be put behind bars as per the provisions, he added. However, he said the products are still in the market for which the FDA will soon issue another notice.

Earlier, the state drug department had identified around 330 brands of combination drugs, among the DCGI's list of 1070 blacklisted brands of combination drugs, for which state FDA had issued licenses during the last more than a decade. The FDA had served notices on the drug companies in the state asking them to immediately stop production of the listed combination drugs.

There are more than one thousands pharma units spread over the seven divisions of the state. Though there are units in all the divisions, maximum numbers of units are concentrated in the Konkan, Pune and Mumbai divisions. The state FDA had instructed its joint commissioners in all the seven divisions of the state to issue 'stop production and return the stock' order to the manufacturers of around 330 combination drugs. Besides, the state FDA has issued 'seize and launch prosecution' order against those who sell the banned products as per the DCGI list.