Is Piriton banned in India?

Piriton is two products. Piriton tablets are plain chlorpheniramine maleate, an old antihistamine, and have never been banned. Piriton expectorant is a cough syrup that combines chlorpheniramine with ammonium chloride and sodium citrate, and that is the product with a legal history.

The expectorant was among the 328 fixed-dose combinations prohibited on 7 September 2018 under S.O. 4532(E), after the Drugs Technical Advisory Board reviewed the list returned by the Supreme Court. GSK challenged the notification. In February 2019 a Supreme Court bench of Justices Nariman and Malhotra granted interim relief to Piriton expectorant, Saridon and Dart, allowing them to be sold until the petitions are decided. That interim order is still the operative position, and the final hearing has not been reported.

One distinction matters. The June 2023 notification that banned 14 older FDCs included a chlorpheniramine, ammonium chloride, sodium citrate and menthol syrup (S.O. 2406(E)). That is a different formulation from Piriton expectorant, which contains no menthol; Piriton's own entry on CDSCO's list, S.O. 4532(E), is still marked as under examination following the Supreme Court order.

For families, the practical points are ordinary: Piriton tablets cause drowsiness, and no cough syrup, including the expectorant, should be given to a child under two after the DGHS advisory of October 2025.