Here’s why Nepal banned 16 Indian pharma companies, including Patanjali’s Divya Pharmaceuticals

Nepal has banned the import of medicines from 16 Indian pharmaceutical companies, including Divya Pharmaceuticals – a subsidiary of yoga guru Ramdev’s Patanjali Yog Peeth – and Cadilla, citing the failure of compliance with the World Health Organisation’s good manufacturing practices.

Nepal’s Department of Drug Administration – the country’s regulatory body for drugs – Tuesday published a list of Indian pharmaceutical companies that didn’t meet the WHO guidelines.

“After inspection of the manufacturing facilities of the pharmaceutical companies, which had applied to export their products to our country, we have published the list of the companies that do not comply with the World Health Organisation’s good manufacturing practices,” Santosh KC, a spokesperson at the department, told to a daily The Kathmandu Post.

According to the report, the department had sent a team of drug inspectors to India in the months of April and July, to inspect the manufacturing facilities of pharmaceutical companies that had applied to supply their products to Nepal.

Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP, also referred to as ‘cGMP’ or ‘current Good Manufacturing Practice’) is the aspect of quality assurance that ensures that medicinal products are consistently produced and controlled to the quality standards appropriate to their intended use and as required by the product specification.

More than 100 countries have incorporated the WHO GMP provisions into their national medicines laws, and many more countries have adopted its provisions and approach in defining their own national GMP requirements.

This is not the first time the sale of Indian drugs have come under the scanner in Nepal. In 2019, an import ban was imposed on three Indian medicines, including Zylo-P of Leben Laboratories, Reldine of Real Hygiene and Kelvin of Leben Laboratories