Is Analgin banned in India?

Analgin is the Indian name for metamizole (dipyrone), an old painkiller and antipyretic that many countries withdrew because of a rare but serious blood disorder, agranulocytosis. India moved later and then partly reversed itself, which explains the confusion.

On 18 June 2013 the Health Ministry suspended the manufacture and sale of analgin under GSR 378(E), the same day it suspended pioglitazone and the antidepressant combination flupentixol + melitracen. Manufacturers and some clinicians objected, arguing that the drug was still useful in hospital settings. The Drugs Technical Advisory Board reviewed the evidence, and on 19 March 2014 the government revoked the suspension. Business Standard reported the revocation on that date. The condition attached was a mandatory label restriction: analgin is to be used only for severe pain or fever that has not responded to other drugs, with a warning about agranulocytosis.

That is the position today. Single-ingredient analgin, sold as Novalgin and similar brands, is legal on prescription. Fixed-dose combinations containing analgin were banned in an earlier 1990s notification and were not affected by the 2014 revocation; they remain on the CDSCO list of banned drugs.

The 2014 revocation's GSR number is not recorded in our sources and is flagged for verification.