An unhealthy practice

All it took was a routine enquiry at a chemist by a young intern with BusinessLine , and a lead brand of the hormone Oxytocin was sold to her over the counter without a prescription. The enquiry was to investigate an allegation by social workers worried about the trafficking of young girls. Oxytocin, they alleged, was easily available and misused to induce puberty in young girls.

But this is a lesser known abuse of the drug that has gained notoriety for its misuse in cattle and poultry. In an average cattle shed anywhere in the country, it is not uncommon to see people there jab an injection into the animal, ostensibly to get it to produce more milk. But the catch here is, the government had restricted the manufacture and distribution of veterinary Oxytocin in 2014 to stop illegal use and cruelty to the animal. So if there still is rampant veterinary misuse of the drug, it calls for a massive surveillance and crackdown. Discussions between the government and industry have red-flagged the “clandestine” import of the drug from China and its subsequent sale in India in “crude plastic bottles” by unlicensed companies. Even on the organised front, only one company imports the raw material and this is made into a finished drug and sold by licensed and unlicensed players.

Restricting production

Against this backdrop that the government moved to restrict private companies from making Oxytocin, even as it anointed public sector unit Karnataka Antibiotics & Pharmaceuticals Ltd (KAPL) to start producing the product. Even as the government’s notification on this came into effect on July 1, raids by the Drug Controller’s office in Bihar found two units with illegal Oxytocin stocks.

While the crackdown on illegal producers is warranted, doctors who use Oxytocin to stop excessive bleeding during childbirth cautioned the government that stopping licensed private companies from making the product could create supply shortages. With an eye on keeping the supplies going, the deadline on the private ban was deferred to September 1. Oddly, the government’s Oxytocin move has paved the way for a PSU monopoly, by a company that has never made this drug in the past. The latest situation comes when health advocacy groups oppose monopolies by MNCs on innovative drugs, on similar grounds.

Competition is a leveller and the government would do well to rethink the ban of private production of this essential, price-controlled drug. Though KAPL claims to have the capacity to supply the country’s requirement, there is little transparency over the drug’s pricing in comparison to that of private producers, some of whom have stopped making the drug. Conspiracy theorists see the hand of “cow politics” in the Oxytocin move. Some doctors call it a “historical blunder” and “demonitisation” of healthcare, while industry calls it a “nationalisation” move of sorts.

Oxytocin, often called the “love hormone”, is not the villain here. It is a life-saving drug. The call for its rational use is to protect milch animals and end-consumers using dairy products. And its abuse needs to be curbed, possibly by restricting its human and veterinary sale with multiple layers of documentation as is the case with narcotic and psychotropic drugs or antibiotics, for instance.

Massive surveillance and raids on unscrupulous importers and unlicensed producers must be implemented. And they must be put out of business. But banning legitimate competition on a critical drug ends up setting an unhealthy precedent.

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