The Delhi High Court on August 31 stayed the Central Government's decision to restrain private companies from manufacturing and selling oxytocin drug till October.



A bench of Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and A. K. Chawla in an interim order suspended the government's decision till October and listed the matter for further hearing on September 12. The court was hearing pleas of Mylan Laboratories' subsidiary BGP Products Operations GmbH, Neon Laboratories and NGO All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN).

The government has restricted its manufacture to the public sector only and allowed state-run Karnataka Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals Ltd (KAPL) to produce it for domestic use. The decision taken under Section 26A of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 is aimed at checking the misuse of oxytocin, a reproductive hormone found in mammals that increases the contraction of the uterus during labour and stimulates ejection of milk into the ducts of the breasts.