A three-member expert panel will examine and report on the issue of banning or preventing the distribution of diclofenac injection in doses higher than 3ml under the Section 26A of the Drugs and Cosmetics (D&C) Act.

The expert committee was formed by the Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) recently after discussing the request by an organisation which claimed that high dosage of diclofenac had led to a decline in vulture population in India.

After going through the issue, the DTAB felt that banning of multi dose injections alone may not provide a long term solution to the problem of declining vulture population. The DTAB after deliberations decided that a sub-committee may be constituted to examine the issues related to the use of diclofenac sodium injection and decline in vulture population.

Dr S D Seth, Advisor CTRI, National Institute of Medical Statistics, ICMR, New Delhi, Dr Y K Gupta, professor & head, Department of Pharmacology, AIIMS, New Delhi and Dr N K Gupta, director professor, will be the members of the panel.

Delhi-based Green Indian States Trust had written to the  Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for preventing diclofenac caused vulture decline in India and had requested for additional steps to prevent the misuse of diclofenac sodium injection in animals.

It was alleged that multiple dose of diclofenac sodium injection in the pack-size of 30ml is misused in the treatment of animals because of the lower cost of the treatment even though alternative treatment in the firm of meloxicam is available for animal use. It was urged that the manufacture, sale and distribution of all packs higher than 3ml of diclofenac sodium injection may be prohibited to save the vulture population.