PHARMA LITERATI

The UK is now facing a national shortage of paracetamol, commonly used to fight Covid-19, due to India curbing exports of the drug during the global pandemic. Pharmacists  across the UK are being forced to ration paracetamol-containing products to one packet per customer, with many shops completely out of stock of the world's most popular painkiller. On March 3, India restricted the export of 26 pharmaceutical ingredients and the  medicines  made from them, which included paracetamol, some antibiotics and certain vitamins. Department for International Trade officials in the UK are currently in discussions with their Indian counterparts about easing those restrictions for key British suppliers. India is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of drugs, with the UK heavily reliant on its supply. India’s pharmaceutical companies source about 70 per cent of their ingredients from Chinese factories and the main ingredient of paracetamol is primarily man...

If you have frequently been giving your child paracetamol (liquid or tablets) whenever he/she is down with fever, you might want to cut down on your go-to remedy. That’s because the harmless seeming paracetamol when given in excess could give rise to bigger health problems. Health warning Doctors in the UK have warned that parents are putting their children’s health at risk by giving them paracetamol too readily. Professor Alastair Sutcliffe, specialising in general paediatrics at University College London, said, “Parents are using paracetamol too permissively. They seem to fear fever as an illness per se, which it is not. There is evidence that the excess usage of paracetamol is associated with increased rates of asthma, increased rates of liver damage — but [also] less widely known, kidney and heart damage .” Other experts pointed that children were being given more than the recommended dose by those taking care of them. who didn’t know how much they’d had earlier th...