[e-drug] Re: Oral rehydration salts (ORS) - formulation (cont'd)

[ctddsf@vsnl.com]

E-drug: Re: Oral rehydration salts (ORS) - formulation (cont'd)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Friends

I think the background of Dr.Tripathi's initial posting needs to be
understood. In India the largest selling brand of ORs is called Electral,
marketed by a company called FDC. The composition of Electral is as follows:
Pot.chl.        1.5 g
sod chl.        1.25 g
sod. cit.       2.9 g
dextrose.       27 g
per 35 g (to be reconstituted as i litre of ORS soln.)

As can be seen the soln. has more sugar and less sodium than the WHO
formula. Rational drug groups have argued that the formulation is irrational
as the extra sugar can worsen diarrhoea in children and the low sodium is
not enough to replensish sodium loss in severe diarrhoea. The company has
countered by saying that its formula conforms to the guidlines of the Indian
Drug Control authorities (which it does - the guidelines give a range -- and
Electral conforms to this, dextrose level is at the extreme high of the
range stipulated and sodium is at the extreme low end of the range!).

Why the company likes to make its formulation in this manner is easy to
understand -- the low sodium and high dextrose makes it more palatable
(along with different flavours added to the formulation). As a result the
major sales of Electral are not for treating diarrhoeal episodes but as a
"pick me up" kind of a concoction in India's hot summer months!

The question which still continues to concern many of us in India is --
whether the above formula can really be termed as irrational, i.e. can we
make out a case for its withdrawal from the market. From the literature we
have read, including those cited by many e-druggers in this present round of
discusions (most of which we had already gone through) we have not received
a satisfactory reply to the query.

Thought this clarification would be in order.

Dr.Amit Sen Gupta
National Campaign Committee for Drug Policy
India
email: ctddsf@vsnl.com

--
Send mail for the `E-Drug' conference to `e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'.
Mail administrative requests to `majordomo@usa.healthnet.org'.
For additional assistance, send mail to:  `owner-e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'.