Analysis of haematinic preparations available in Indian pharmaceutical market

Iron deficiency anaemia is a major health problem worldwide. In India, prevalence of anaemia is very high (51% among non-pregnant women and 87% among pregnant women)1. Iron deficiency in India has multifactorial etiology like poverty, ignorance, helminthiasis, amoebiasis, diarrhoea, malabsorption, and multiple pregnancies. Haematinics are drugs used for the treatment and prevention of anemia. In clinical practice a patient of iron deficiency anaemia responds readily to treatment with iron supplementation. Large numbers of iron salts are available in market for iron therapy, the majority of which are proprietary multi-drug combinations2 . The haematinics market in India is currently worth around Rs. 900 crores and is growing at 15% per annum.3 The objective of this study was to analyze the haematinic formulations available in Indian market for their varieties of dosage forms, iron salts used, content of elemental iron, frequency of administration required, presence of additional nutrients, rationality, and cost. Only 34% of haematinic formulations fit into the definition of rational formulation. Indian drug market is flooded with various combinations of drug formulations, the majority of which are proprietary multi-drug combinations and most of the patients are being made to ingest totally unnecessary drugs. So it is an urge to the drug regulation authorities to pay attention towards rationality of these drug formulations so as to reduce the cost of therapy and also to improve the quality of treatment.