Nepal’s drug regulator Department of Drug Administration (DDA) banned the import and distribution of Divya Pharmacy’s products along with 15 other Indian companies following their failure to comply with World Health Organisation’s drug manufacturing standards.
Divya Pharmacy is famously known for manufacturing Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali products. The other banned Indian Pharmaceuticals companies are Zee Laboratories, Captab Biotec, Mercury Laboratories Ltd, Radiant Parenterals Ltd, Alliance Biotech, Cadila Healthcare Ltd, Mackur Laboratories, Concept Pharmaceuticals, Unijules Life Science, Shree Anand Life Science, Dial Pharmaceuticals, IPCA Laboratories, Daffodils Pharmaceuticals, and Aglowmed Ltd.
The notice issued by DDA on December 18th, 2022 asked the local agents of Nepal to recall the medicines. The notice included Indian and Foreign Pharma companies to stop the export and distribution of their medicines and other products in Nepal.
News agency PTI reported that DDA had sent a team of drug inspectors in April and July to inspect the manufacturing facilities. In another notice, DDA asked the distributors to call off 500 ml and 5-liter hand sanitizers synthesized by India’s Global Healthcare.
Earlier, WHO issued a medical alert over four cough syrups manufactured by India’s Maiden Pharma including Kofex Malin Baby Cough Syrup, Magrip N Cold Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup, and Promethazine Oral solution. These four cough syrups are alleged in about 66 deaths of children in The Gambia.
