Date:30/03/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/03/30/stories/2005033001131300.htm

National

Baby oil battle moves to Delhi

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, MARCH 29. The high drama that followed the Maharashtra Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) serving a notice on the multinational Johnson & Johnson for some of its baby products has now moved to the Centre.

The FDA Commissioner, A. Ramakrishna, told The Hindu that on the eve of the deadline given to the company, when it was expected to explain how it could continue to sell its products using the term "baby" when some of them contained ingredients like paraffin oil that were not suitable for infants, the matter had moved to the office of the Drug Controller of India in New Delhi.

In the last fortnight, since the FDA issued the notice, Mr. Ramakrishna said representatives of the company had sought meetings with him. They had offered to put a caution on the label of the product but said that as the product had been sold for over 40 years with the word "baby," changing that would be difficult. They had also proposed that the Government consider setting up specific standards for products being sold for use by infants.

Mr. Ramakrishna said that while such standards would be useful in the long run, in the short run it was still important to prevent the sale of products aimed at babies if they were not suitable for them.

The deadline set for the company had been extended by another week, he said, but the issue was still not resolved.

Slimming drugs sale

The Maharashtra FDA has also moved against companies selling slimming drugs through telemarketing.

The FDA has seized samples and supplies of Wonder Slim Herbal and Wonder Slim Ayurvedic capsules, KPR Diabetic powders and some other products from the Mumbai outlet of the Hyderabad-based Ramson Marketing Private Limited. As these products are manufactured in Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the FDAs in those States have been alerted.

Mr. Ramakrishna said private television channels such as CTV, ITV and Aastha, which were selling these products through telemarketing, had also been asked to stop selling them.

Apart from a steep mark-up — the drugs were bought from the manufacturer for Rs. 80 per packet but sold for Rs. 1,000 on TV — the FDA states that they make misleading claims, which is a criminal offence.