“The administration is in its final stage of banning ammonium chloride and quaiphesin,” said Gajendra Bahadur Bhuju at the DDA. [break]
Ammonium chloride is a fertilizer used in vegetables, and has nothing to do with treating patients with cough. Similarly, quaiphesin also has no use in treating cough. The DDA has already banned another ingredient called phenylpropanolamine, also used in cough expectorant, which can have a negative impact on people with blood pressure problems.
According to Baburam Humagain, former drug inspector of the DDA and representative of the Pharmaceutical Horizon of Nepal (PHoN), there is another ingredient, sodium citrate, widely-used in cough expectorant despite the fact that it does not work to control or cure cough.
Generally, anti-cough medicine does not really make a difference compared with taking steam and drinking hot water to treat a cough, says Dr Radha Raman Prasad, director of DDA. Even if medicine is taken, it should be done only on the basis of doctor’s prescription.
According to a study carried out by PHoN in 2006, the country annually consumes medicine worth 500 million produced by Nepali pharmaceutical companies. Of the total sale, 40 percent was contributed by cough syrups alone. This is about five percent of the total medicine consumed in the country, including those produced by foreign pharmaceutical companies.
“This indicates wide misuse of cough syrups,” says Humagain.
Several other components used in anti-cough medicine consist of harmful and unnecessary chemicals like codeine, destromethorphan and bromhexine hydrochloride. “Codeine and dextomethorphan are opium and narcotic drugs, respectively, and can create addiction,” said Humagain.
Codeine also results in constipation. Another ingredient massively used in cough syrup is bronchodilator. “This is the medicine for bronchitis patients, and it has nothing to do with general cough,” Humagain said. Also, sodium used in cough syrups does nothing more than common salt does.
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