LAHORE, March 27: The federal government has failed to implement its decision regarding banning pain-killer Novelgin and other medicines containing Metamizole. All chemists are still in the dark (about the official order) as Novelgin in the shape of tablets, syrup, injection and drops is being sold.

Pakistan Chemists Retailers Association (PCRA) chairman Ishaq Meo says the association has so far not been informed about the decision in writing. He said he himself learnt about it (the ban) through media reports.

The Drug Registration Board (DRB), a statutory body, had at its meeting on Feb 23 de-registered Metamizole, commonly known as Novalgin and manufactured by a multinational company in the country.

According to an order, the DRB had stated that a complete ban on the import, manufacture and sale of all Metamizole containing products had been placed with immediate effect.

The order also said: “All stocks of such drugs lying throughout the distribution network across the country also needed to be recalled to be destroyed safely by the manufacturers with intimation and proof to the Ministry of Health within a period of 14 days.”

It is learnt that around 41 brands of the banned drug manufactured and sold by some 24 national and multinational companies are available in the country.

The Metamizole was introduced in Pakistan and around the world by a German multinational in 1970s and it soon became a drug of choice with doctors for reducing high fever. In 1977, the US Food and Drug Administration banned it for causing a blood cancer-like effect on roughly one out of 30,000 consumers.

When contacted, Pakistan Pharmacists Association secretary-general Khalid Saeed said the health ministry had on a number of occasion in the past banned Novalgin but never got its orders implemented because it never completed legal formalities.

Explaining the legal formalities of banning a drug, Mr Saeed said the ministry was required to issue a show-cause notice to the pharmaceutical company concerned and then allow it a personal hearing on the subject of banning a drug. After personal hearing, he said, the health ministry could de-register the drug and then notify its elimination from the distribution network.

Mr Saeed said the DRB did announce ban on Novalgin and all other drugs containing Metamizole “but everything is verbal as no meeting minutes have so far been issued.” He said the DRB had not completed legal formalities to ensure that the distributors lifted stocks of the banned drug within a stipulated period.

PCRA chairman Mr Meo, however, said the ministry had all powers to de-register and ban any drug in public interest and get it implemented. He, however, also added that there was no formal intimation to the association for stopping the sale of Novalgin and other drugs containing Metamizole.