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Stack up on oranges, shortage of Vitamin C in market
Published on Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 18:43 in 
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New Delhi: As winter's approaching it's time to pull out those woolens and it's also time to stack up Vitamin C supplements. But this year you will have to do without those chewy tablets.
There has been a shortage of Vitamin C supplements for at least three months.
A slash in rates by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, because of which most pharma companies are left with very little or no profit margin on the product. This, when the companies were already facing a supply crunch of cheap raw materials from China.
"Vitamin C supplements are used for therapeutic and preventive purposes. They prevent allergies, help wth respiratory problems and are specifically for diseases like scurvy," said Dr Sandeep Budhiraja.
However, because of the shortage, doctors are taking to prescribing multivitamin tablets that contain Vitamin C in low doses. But some doctors warn that in the long run this might lead to other problems.
"When a person takes the other and not the required vitamins like A, K, E etc which are not water soluble, it could cause other problems," added Budhiraja.
There's no word yet from the drug companies on re-introducing these supplements in the market and no way of predicting what they would do if life-saving drugs were hit by a similar supply crunch.
Given the shortage of Vitamin C supplements, the Drug Authority may revise the prices again by the end of the month. And till then a healthier option to get Vitamin C is from citrus fruits like oranges.
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VIT C WHY THE HYPE? PLENTY IN ALL VEGETABLES NOT ONLY ORANGES- ORANGES ARE EXPENSIVE TO BUY- TABS VITS NOT
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