Letters: Medical mystery

This refers to the editorial "Investigate first" (July 18). It is strange that the health ministry has acted in haste to ban the drug pioglitazone, used in the treatment of diabetes, in response to a letter shot off by a Chennai-based doctor V Mohan, who runs a diabetes treatment centre, to the prime minister. The doctor's view that prolonged use of the drug causes bladder cancer has been blindly accepted by the ministry without eliciting expert opinion and taking the issue to the court of other expert doctors for their opinion. The ban order should be revoked till a decision is taken by the Drug Technical Advisory Board that met on July 19. The ministry has ignored the Advisory Board in enforcing the ban, much to the chagrin of regular users of the drug. It is too early to suspect that Mohan had written the letter to promote the sales of sitaglipitin, which is sold in India under the brand Januvia for the treatment of diabetes by MSD Pharmaceuticals that supports a course in Mohan's Academy. An investigation should only confirm or allay the fear expressed by Mohan. In any case, the doctor cannot be punished even if his opinion is found to be wrong.

K V Seetharamaiah Karnataka

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