"Nothing Matters When It Comes To Public Health At Large" : Maharashtra Government Opposes Petition Filed By Johnson & Johnson Against Cancellation Of License

The Maharashtra State Government on Thursday filed its reply to the petition filed by Johnson and Johnson against the cancellation of their license to manufacture baby powder. 

The said affidavit was filed by the Assistant Commissioner of the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) on behalf of the State Government.

The State government in its reply stated that the action of the respondents cancelling the license was keeping in mind public health and that nothing else matters when it comes to public health at large.

Raising doubts about the pH value and standards prescribed by the BIS the reply said that, 

"It is further submitted that, it will be wrong to believe that, Petitioner says that, pH of powder does not impact the safety / public including infant as the limits of pH is prescribed in BIS standard which similar way number of other cosmetics like baby soap also has a test for pH. Variation in pH is harmful to baby. This can be verified and observed from different topics research documents available on various web sites on the internet about the subject."

The State in its reply submitted before the court that two samples of the Johnson Baby Powder were collected from two different places and were sent for testing to Pune and Nashik. The analysis of the sample revealed that the pH value was 9.285 and 9.02 received from Pune and Nasik respectively. The sample sent to Pune was then sent to the Central Drug Laboratory (CDL) in Kolkata for reanalysis. The CDL is the apex body, which reported that the powder was Not of Standard Quality with a pH value of 8.42. The maximum limit for such cosmetic products is between pH values of 5.5 to 8.

The Division Bench of Justice S.V Gangapurwala and Justice SG Dige asked the Government Pleader Milind More if the State has tested any other baby powder from the batch which is under challenge in the petition or has tested from any other batch of powders. 

The Government Pleader said that he will take instructions and submit the same before the court on Monday. 

The writ petition was filed by the company challenging the state government’s decision to cancel the company’s license for manufacturing Johnson and Johnson Baby Powder effective from 15th December. The said samples of the baby powder which were tested belonged to the Mulund Factory.