Oxytocin is a lifesaving drug that is routinely administered to arrest the haemorrhage (bleeding) of a mother after child birth. Without this drug there is a risk of death of the mother during childbirth.
Oxytocin has another use, it is used to enhance milk production in cows and buffaloes in dairy farms. This second use has become so rampant that Government of India has banned the sale of Oxytocin through retail chemists from Sep 1, 2018. Under the new rules, the public sector Karnataka Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals Limited (KAPL) alone will supply oxytocin across the country.
Here comes the twist in the story. Presently there are above 50 companies those are supplying Oxytocin across the country. It is reaching every noon and corner of India through multiple channel. Hence there is no shortage in supply of this life-saving drug even at the remotest corner of our country. Now if a single company and that too a government owned has to supply it there will certainly be a shortage of supply at crucial moments. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) along with obstetricians and gynecologists have asked for review.
This types of Government decisions are taken in a haste and often they are half-baked, one-sided. It is the responsibility of the Government to prevent the illegal use of a drug by constant vigil and policing. Instead government has resorted at restricting a life-saving medicine and put a major chunk of people's life at risk.
There are other such acts of government also to cover its failure of duty and banning items and chemicals. One example is the chemical agents required for acetylation reaction. Acetylation is often used in chemical and pharmaceutical laboratories in institutes to insert an acetyl group in an organic molecule. Examples are acetyl chloride and acetic anhydride. Those chemicals are abused to prepare morphine or brown sugar from morphine. Government agencies failed to nail those culprits, instead they took the easier way of banning the chemicals at the source.
