April 04, 2013
India’s Ministry of Health is considering a new label for antibiotics and other pharmaceutical products that would warn consumers about the risks of over-the-counter drug use. CDDEP Director Dr. Ramanan Laxminarayan appeared on CNN-IBN’s morning program to discuss how the unchecked use of carbapenems and other broad-sprectrum drugs in the community is excerbating the growing problem of drug resistance in India.
Measures to ban the sale of antibiotics without prescription have been brought forward several times since 2010, but their implementation has stalled due to worries about limited access in rural areas. “What we need is a policy that recognizes that some antibiotics should be provided easily to people over-the-counter because not everyone has an access to a doctor,” says Laxminarayan.
Related content:
- See our visualizaiton on the growing volume of carbapenems sold in Indian pharmacies relative to other countries
- Read a situation analysis on antibiotic use and resistance in India, prepared as part of our Global Antibiotic Resistance Partnership project
- Learn more about CDDEP’s global work on drug resistance
