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India's ministry of health and family welfare has banned the popular diabetes drug pioglitazone, the painkiller metamizole, and the psychiatric combination flupentixol with melitracen with immediate effect, because it said that their use was "likely to involve risk to human beings."
The move is a response to a report from a parliamentary standing committee in April that criticised the ministry for failing to withdraw several drugs with questionable safety profiles and lack of evidence of effectiveness. 1 The report highlighted problems with metamizole and the combination, though it did not mention pioglitazone.
An estimated...