The Ministry of Health (MOH) has agreed to the listing of all polymyxins as prohibited substances in all veterinary medicines for all target species, except for veterinary medicines containing Polymyxin B in topical preparation forms.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the decision was made at the 381st Drug Control Authority (DCA) Meeting on Feb 2 as a step to reduce the risk of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to polymyxins.
“Polymyxin, especially Polymyxin E (Colistin) has the potential to be misused in animal feed as a growth promoter agent. The widespread use of Polymyxin E (Colistin) can contribute to AMR,” he said in a statement here today.
As such, he said the meeting also agreed that the cancellation of registration of registered veterinary medicines containing Polymyxin E (Colistin) would take effect immediately.
Dr Noor Hisham said the manufacturing, importing and supplying of the product are also prohibited with immediate effect, while Product Registration holders are allowed to use up existing stock in the market within three months from the date of the product cancellation letter.
“The DCA Meeting also agreed with the decision not to consider re-registration applications for veterinary medicines containing polymyxins (except polymyxin B in the form of topical preparations) with immediate effect,” he said.
Polymyxins (such as Polymyxin E (Colistin) and Polymyxin B) have been categorised as Critically Important Antimicrobials by the World Health Organization (WHO) based on Annex 1 of the WHO Critically Important Antimicrobials for Human Medicine publication.
Polymyxins have also been categorised as the highest priority based on Table 2: Prioritization of antimicrobials categorized as “Critically Important” in human medicine because they have met all the prioritisation factors, Dr Noor Hisham added. – Bernama