Saridon ban lifted; popular painkiller to be available freely after SC relief

Popular painkiller Saridon will continue to be sold freely with the Supreme Court finally lifting the ban on manufacture and sale of the drug. The Supreme Court exempted Piramal Healthcare’s Saridon from a list of over 300 fixed dosage combination drugs that were banned by the Ministry of Healthcare.

Notably, Piramal Healthcare did not suffer any revenue loss on account of Saridon, Nandini Piramal, Executive Director, Piramal Enterprises Limited, told CNBC TV18, as the Supreme Court in September 2018 had stayed Drug Technical Advisory Board ban on Saridon. The stay allowed the company to continue manufacturing, distribution and sale of the fixed dosage combination Saridon, the company said.

Nandini Piramal welcomed the SC order, adding that the company was confident that the law would prevail in their favour. “Saridon is a heritage brand trusted by customers for the last 50 years in India. This exemption from the banned list of FDCs validates our intent to serve our customers with the highest levels of integrity,” she added.

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Piramal also cited a study by AC Neilson and said that the analgesic market as a whole is worth Rs 6,450 crore. Of this, the analgesic tablet market is worth Rs 2,050 crore, as of December 2018.

Saridon story

Earlier, in September 2018, the healthcare ministry had banned more than 300 Fixed drugs Combination (FDC) drugs on the pretext that “there is no therapeutic justification” for the ingredients that are contained in the banned FDC drugs. Fixed drugs combination or FDC drugs hold two or more active drugs in a fixed proportion.

Also, the Drugs Technical Advisory Board had said that these medicines “may involve risk to human beings”. To prevent the irrational usage of these drugs, the ministry had imposed the ban. Popular drugs like Saridon, Panderm along with several cough syrups, painkillers and cold medicines got under the radar.

A flagship product of Piramal Healthcare, Saridon is a popular pain relief tablet. The popularity of the brand is widespread with 31 tablets being sold every second, the company quoted the AC Neilson report.