Unapproved antibiotics consumption alarmingly high

New Delhi: More than 47 per cent of antibiotic formulations used in India's private sector in 2019 were not approved by the central drug regulator, according to a study published in The Lancet Regional Health-Southeast Asia.

The research also found that azithromycin 500mg tablet was the most consumed antibiotic formulation (7.6 per cent) in India, followed by cefixime 200 mg tablet (6.5 per cent) during the year. The researchers at Boston University, US and Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi, examined the private sector antibiotic use, which contributes to 85-90 per cent of the total consumption in India.

The data was gathered from a panel of 9,000 stockists who store products from approximately 5,000 pharmaceutical companies. However, these data did not include the drugs dispensed through public facilities, though this is less than 15-20 per cent of all drug sales in the country as per studies and national health accounts estimates.

The researchers found a lower consumption rate of antibiotics compared to previous estimates, but very high relative consumption of broad-spectrum antibiotics, which act against a wide range of disease-causing bacteria.