The Bombay High Court on Wednesday gave a big relief to Johnson & Johnson and granted permission granted to sell baby powder.
Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court set aside the order canceling the license of Johnson & Johnson to manufacture baby powder.
Earlier on Wednesday the court reserved the petition for orders and said, “What we propose is this. Our view regarding ‘prayer A’ is that rule will have to be made absolute regarding the concerned batches.”
Moreover, within a certain time frame, Justice Patel and Justice SG Dhige a division bench expressed the need for FDA to act swiftly.
“We will say that to act against a batch or full production capacity, you must exercise power reasonably and proportionately. You must act within a time frame because you are dealing with cosmetics, especially drugs. here cannot be delayed for months and years. We will set out that the speed at which you operate will be a factor to be considered, whenever there is a challenge. We are not saying anything so far as the product is concerned.”
The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration decided to cancel the manufacturing license due to low quality in September 2022. FDA requested to cancel the petition as pH levels were found to be higher than the prescribed limit.
However, in 2019 November the samples were collected and in 2021 the first show cause notice was issued and on 15 September 2022 the samples license was canceled.
“You are supposedly the torchbearers and champions of public health …Is this your sense of urgency?” Justice Gautam Patel asked.
After the Bombay High Court orders, four fresh samples were collected and two government and one independent laboratory it was tested. Furthermore, between 5-8, the pH reading should be this.