| Diet News June 30 2005 Ban on diet aids stayed: Minister Pharma majors Ranbaxy, Wockhardt, Nicholas Piramal lobby for relief Mumbai, June 28: The highly debated proposed ban on vitamin drops for babies, calcium tablets, multivitamins and a host of dietary supplements was stayed by the state government . A delegation of industry representatives that met Manohar Naik, Minister for Food and Drugs, to reconsider the ban will be relieved with the stay on the July 1 ban. The Rs 2,000-crore nutraceutical industry was on tenterhooks after the State Food and Drug Administration had put forward the proposal in May. “The ban has been stayed for now because a separate Integrated Food Safety Bill is in the pipeline,’’ said Baba Siddique, state Minister for Food and Drugs. “It’s a central government issue and the state need not interfere.” The 30-year-old food and dietary supplements industry has seen a surge over the last five years, a crucial driver of burgeoning lifestyle and fitness industry. Doctors often prescribe the products for obesity, hair loss, anaemia and skin ailments and energy boosters. Group of corporate meet naik.The representation that met Naik included pharma majors: Ranbaxy, Wockhardt, Nicholas Piramal and officials of Health Foods and Dietary Supplements Association (HADSA). Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) Commissioner M Rameshkumar justified the ban and said: “It’s a consumer safety issue. All those in capsule or tablet form need to be regulated.’’ Swati Piramal, director of Nicholas Piramal Group said: ‘‘It is difficult to get a drug license for these products because that needs testing. It’s difficult to test them as they are naturally occuring products with big molecules.’’ While the FDA hopes to put nutraceuticals under the scanner of the Drug and Cosmetics Act, 1995, manufacturers are too keen with the idea. |
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