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A pharmaceutical industry leader has urged India to ban over-the-counter sales of antibiotics, warning that regulation risks undermining the country’s global credibility as a pharma hub.
“India should immediately stop the over-the-counter sale of antibiotics,” Anil Matai, director general of the Organization of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), told CNBC-TV18. He described the practice as one of the biggest threats to public health.
Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Matai clarified that antibiotics are “precision medicines” and should never be given without a prescription. “Antibiotics are precision medicines – they should never be available over the counter,” he said.
Matai directly linked the misuse of antibiotics to the alarming rise in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – a crisis that India is experiencing more acutely than many other countries.
Incomplete courses, accidental self-medication and pharmacies openly selling antibiotics without prescription are causing the drugs to stop working when patients need them most, he said.
He warned, “When antibiotics are misused, they will not work the next time. This is a global challenge, but India is at greater risk because of overuse and misuse.”
Recent reports underline the urgency of Matai’s warning. Pharmacies in major cities have been found to be selling OTC antibiotics despite legal restrictions, violating prescription rules. A growing number of Indians, including hospital patients, now have antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a sign of widespread misuse.
With the infectious disease burden still high in India, AMR threatens to push even routine infections into the “difficult to treat” category – leading to increased treatment costs, hospitalization rates and mortality.
Matai’s comments also come in the backdrop of drug quality controversies, including the deaths of several children linked to the cough syrup, which led to scrutiny of India’s manufacturing and regulatory systems and global scrutiny.
These incidents highlight flaws not only in production but also in distribution and inspection – exactly the flaws that Matai said should be fixed.
Matai called for strict enforcement of prescription-only status for antibiotics through pharmacy level control and inspection. Matai also advocated monitoring of prescribed practices.
He said curbing antibiotic misuse is essential if India wants to protect patient safety, control AMR and establish itself as a “pharma powerhouse” driven by trust, innovation and quality.
(edited by : Tenzin Norzom,