On 10^th March, India banned the manufacture and sale of more than 300 combination medicines, including two widely used cough syrups, being sold without government approval.

Reuters has reported that though combination drugs are used worldwide to improve patients' compliance, in India they have proliferated to the point where in 2014 nearly half the drugs on the market were combinations. Companies in India have increasingly added ingredients to existing drugs so they can promote a new product to doctors and chemists in an effort to increase market share.

A notice issued by the Indian Health Ministry said that it has found that the banned combinations were “likely to involve risk to human beings, whereas safer alternatives to the said drug are available.” They have listed down 344 such combination drugs which have been banned, with immediate effect. Besides antibiotic combinations, the list of banned drugs also included analgesic combinations containing nimesulide, and codeine-based drugs.

Following this, Pfizer has today issued a statement to the exchanges that its hugely popular combination cough syrup, Codeine has got affected. It has stopped making and marketing of this syrup. This will have an adverse impact on the profitability of the company – the syrup, marketed as Corex, contributed Rs.176 crore to the revenue for 9MFY16, which stands at around 12% to net sales. This is sure to dent the performance, mildly in Q4 but more severe in FY17.

The stock price has plunged following this statement, going down intra day to Rs.1820, a fall of almost 6%. It remains now around the same levels as Rs.1824.