New Delhi, Nov. 23: India’s apex medical regulator today accepted its ethics panel’s advice to punish two doctors who had approved the Indian Medical Association’s deals to endorse oats, juice and a mosquito repellent in 2007.

The IMA’s then president and secretary-general had approved a commercial deal with the manufacturers of Quaker oats, Tropicana and Odomos to allow the association logo to appear on the products. The IMA was to receive payment for three years.

“We’ve accepted the recommendation — six months’ suspension (of the right to practise medicine) for the president, six months’ suspension for the secretary-general, and a warning to all members,” a Medical Council of India source said.

Two IMA officials said the association had decided in November 2009 not to enter into any further endorsement agreements. In 2004, two IMA officials had endorsed a set of water purifiers made in India, certifying them as meeting international standards.

“We always knew that individual doctors could not endorse any product, but the IMA is an association of doctors,” said Krishna Avtar, joint secretary of the IMA in New Delhi. “But after we learnt that this was wrong, we decided in November 2009 that the IMA would never again endorse products.”

The IMA is a non-government body with nearly 190,000 members from across India.