Is Pan-D banned in India?

Pan-D is Alkem's pantoprazole + domperidone capsule, taken by millions of Indians for acidity and reflux. It is not banned, and it is the most frequently counterfeited product in this category, which is where the confusion comes from.

The CDSCO's alert for August 2024, published on 27 September 2024, listed Pan-D batch 23444296 among 48 samples not of standard quality and 4 spurious. Alkem said the batch was spurious and not manufactured by the company. The regulator's later alert for September 2024 also named Pan-D and Shelcal 500 as spurious, and the Drugs Controller General noted that spurious and substandard samples together were about 1.5 per cent of some 3,000 tested that month. Then the alert for August 2025, published on 19 September 2025, declared Pan-D and Pan 40 samples collected in Bihar spurious, along with a diazepam injection.

In each case the company's position was that the packs were fakes carrying its name, and the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance has complained that reporting such findings under legitimate brand names harms manufacturers. Both statements can be true: a counterfeit is by definition not of standard quality and is also not the brand owner's product.

Pantoprazole + domperidone as a combination has not been banned. The CDSCO's 11 April 2025 direction halted three-drug versions with levosulpiride or simethicone, which are different products. Buy Pan-D from a licensed pharmacy, keep the bill and check the batch.