Punjab, Oct. 9 -- The Union Health Ministry has proposed that chemists and drug distributors get central government approval before advertising prescription-only medicines - a draft amendment to the Drugs Rules, 1945, floated on Friday.
What changes
Advertising drugs listed under Schedule H, Schedule H1 and Schedule X already requires prior sanction from the central government. The draft extends that requirement to entities holding licences for the sale and distribution of drugs - which, in practice, means retail pharmacies and wholesalers.
Those schedules are not an obscure corner of the pharmacopoeia. Schedule H covers prescription-only medicines generally. Schedule H1 covers the drugs where misuse causes the most public health damage:...