New Delhi, Sept. 23 -- India's drug regulator has warned against the indiscriminate use of painkillers and antibiotics, highlighting risks including kidney damage and antimicrobial resistance.

patients, healthcare professionals, pharmacists, retailers, distributors, and hospital administrators.

The warning responds to a common pattern in India, where people can often purchase medicines such as ibuprofen without a prescription or meaningful screening for factors that increase risk, including older age, diabetes, or use of diuretics. The regulator's intervention aims to make that routine transaction more cautious and accountable.

The kidney warning concerns a class of drugs called NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), which inc...