Is Shelcal 500 banned in India?

Shelcal 500 is Torrent's calcium carbonate with vitamin D3, probably the most widely taken supplement tablet in India among older adults. It is not banned, and calcium + vitamin D3 has never been the subject of a Section 26A notification.

Shelcal became news in autumn 2024. The CDSCO's alert for August 2024, published on 27 September, listed a Shelcal 500 sample among 48 not of standard quality and 4 spurious, together with Pan-D, Clavam 625 and Pulmosil. Torrent responded that the sample was "non-genuine and spurious", meaning a counterfeit carrying its name. The alert for September 2024, published on 26 October, went further and listed Shelcal 500 and Pan-D as spurious in their own right. The Drugs Controller General noted at the time that spurious and substandard samples together made up about 1.5 per cent of some 3,000 tested that month.

Both findings concerned specific samples. The Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance has argued that publishing counterfeit findings under legitimate brand names does the companies reputational harm, and in Shelcal's case the company's account and the regulator's are consistent: someone made fake Shelcal.

Generic calcium + vitamin D3 tablets from various makers also appear among not-of-standard-quality items in most monthly alerts, usually for failing a dissolution or content test. Those findings apply to the batch and manufacturer named.

Shelcal can be taken as before. Buy it from a licensed pharmacy with a bill, and compare the batch on the strip with the alerts if a report worries you.