Q: In India, nimesulide paracetamol suspension is prescribed for children. Last week I read in one of the magazines that nimesulide was not approved by FDA in US and they got certification from some other country and has been floated worldwide (except US/Canada). If this is the case, does it pose any problem using this? Is this known in India? If yes, how come doctors are prescribing this?

A:It is true that nimesulide was discovered in US but never approved. It is also not approved for use in over 150 countries including Britain, Canada, Australia, News Zealand, Japan etc. etc. For a brief period it was approved in Portugal and Finland but banned when some children died in Portugal and some adults in Finland had to be transplanted with liver because of liver damage. In India, many doctors are under the unholy influence of drug companies selling globally discarded nimesulide. There is a profit margin of 2000% in nimesulide; hence lot of money is spent on promotion and inducements. Since there is no effective system of determining side effects in India, no one knows how many children have died due to nimesulide.