Is Vicks Action 500 banned in India?

Vicks Action 500 Advanced, the tablet on sale today, is not banned in India. It contains paracetamol 500 mg, phenylephrine 5 mg, caffeine 30 mg and diphenhydramine 25 mg, according to its PharmEasy listing, and that four-drug combination does not appear in any ban notification.

The "why was Vicks Action 500 banned" question goes back to March 2016. On 10 March 2016 the Health Ministry banned 344 fixed-dose combinations, including paracetamol + phenylephrine + caffeine under S.O. 713(E). That was the formula of Vicks Action 500 Extra. Medical Dialogues reported on 15 March 2016 that the company "discontinued the manufacture and sale of all SKUs of 'Vicks Action 500 Extra' with immediate effect".

The 2016 ban did not last. The Delhi High Court quashed it on 1 December 2016, and the Supreme Court later treated the three-drug combination as a pre-1988 FDC to be examined by experts. It is still listed as under examination, and it was not among the 14 older FDCs re-banned on 2 June 2023.

Two other bans sit in the background. Phenylpropanolamine (PPA) formulations were prohibited by GSR 82(E) of 10 February 2011, an order CDSCO notes was stayed by the Madras High Court, and paracetamol + chlorpheniramine + phenylpropanolamine was banned by S.O. 3406(E) on 2 August 2024. Neither covers the current Advanced tablet.

In the September 2026 NSQ list, a generic tablet with the same four ingredients, made by Durgaji Healthcare (batch DHPLT/030725), was declared not of standard quality. That finding concerns that batch only and is not a P&G product.