Discuss the role and powers of the Drugs Technical Advisory Board and Section 26A of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 in safeguarding public health.

India's drug regulation rests on a two-step design: expert scientific advice through the Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB), constituted under Section 5 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 [1], and executive prohibitory power under Section 26A [1]. Together they convert medical evidence into enforceable restrictions protecting public health.

Role and powers of the DTAB

• Statutory technical advisor to the Centre and States on matters arising out of the administration of the Act, chaired ex-officio by the Director General of Health Services [1].
• Representative composition of ex-officio, nominated and elected members drawn from pharmacology, medicine and the pharmacy profession — insulating decisions from purely commercial pressure [1].
• Advises on rule-making under the Act, including standards, labelling and safety of formulations; its recommendations, alongside Subject Expert Committees, underpin restrictions on irrational or unsafe Fixed Dose Combinations (FDCs) [2].

Section 26A: the prohibitory power

• Empowers the Central Government, in the public interest, to prohibit by gazette notification the manufacture, sale or distribution of any drug or cosmetic likely to involve risk to human beings or lacking therapeutic justification [1].
• Permits graded, targeted action rather than only a blanket ban — restrictions can be age-specific or condition-specific.
• Recent example: in August 2026 the Government restricted all FDCs of Chlorpheniramine Maleate and Phenylephrine Hydrochloride for children below four years, on DTAB and expert committee advice, mandating the warning that the combination "shall not be used in children below four years of age" on labels, package inserts and promotional literature [2].

Limitations

• Effectiveness depends on CDSCO and State drug inspectorates, where post-market surveillance and retail-level enforcement remain thin.

DTAB supplies the scientific reasoning and Section 26A the legal teeth — an evidence-to-enforcement chain reflecting the precautionary principle. Strengthening inspection capacity, pharmacovigilance and pharmacist awareness would make this framework fully deliver on the State's duty under Article 47 to raise public health.