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Doctors association demands govt to regulate quality control on generics before framing rules for prescription
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A Raju, Hyderabad
May 19 , 2017
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With Medical Council of India’s (MCI) direction to all doctors to
prescribe only generic drugs in a clear and legible handwriting, the
doctors association in Telangana and elsewhere in the country are still
finding it tough to comply with the directive and expressing their
inability to do it, because they have least confidence in the efficacy
and quality of generics.
According to Dr. Narsing Reddy,
president of State Medical Association, Telangana, though the
government’s intention in asking the doctors' community to prescribe
only generic medicines to help the patient’s get affordable healthcare,
there is no proper regulatory system to continuously monitor the quality
and efficacy of the generics. This may backfire and may cause
irreversible damage to the patients.
“We feel that without
proper rules and regulatory quality control systems on generic
medicines, it is impractical to prescribe only generic medicines. We
demand the government that before coming out with any frame work on
prescribing generic drugs, the government should first fix the prices of
generics and branded drugs on a same platform. When both generics and
branded version of same medicine functions with same efficacy and give
the same result then why should be there 70-80 per cent variation in the
prices,” countered Dr Narsing Reddy.
Dr Narsing Reddy also
sought for strict regulation of medical stores, where majority of stores
have appointed shop keepers and non qualified persons instead of
pharmacists to dispense medicines. “If we start prescribing the generic
drugs, then who will control the pharmacies who may instead of
dispensing the generic drugs may sell the branded medicines of same drug
and if this happens, neither the patient nor the doctor who is treating
will be satisfied. Because, on one hand the patient may not get
affordable medicine, while on the other if there is any side effects and
adverse reactions then the doctors will be blamed. Therefore we demand
the government to frame rules and regulations with a level playing
platform where it should take steps to regularly monitor and test the
quality and efficacy of generic medicines in the market. Secondly the
government should also bring a level playing platform to fix the prices
of generics and branded drugs with same uniformity,” observed Reddy.
However,
on the contrary, the Telangana Pharmacists Association president Sanjay
Reddy welcomed the government’s move directing the doctors to prescribe
generic medicines and said that as per World Health Organization (WHO)
more than 79-80 per cent of populations are spending half of their
earning on medicines and healthcare. In view of this the move by the
government to ask doctors to prescribe generic medicines is welcome as
it will drastically cut the healthcare costs for the patients.
“We welcome the government’s move, as the same time we also demand the
government to improve the quality control mechanism of generic drugs and
publish BA/BE clinical trial studies on regular basis which will not
only instill confidence among the doctors but also the patients alike,”
said Sanjay Reddy.
At present, the price difference of generics
and branded drugs is varying anywhere between 70-80 per cent. For
instance the generic paracetamol drug used for treating fever and
headache which costs Rs.8 a strip of 10 tablets, the same medicine with brand name costs Rs.25-30.
Similarly, Citrizen for cold, whose generic versions costs Rs.1.80 to Rs.2 per strip, the branded version costs Rs.15-16.
Like this there are hundreds of medicines generic and branded medicines
which differ hugely in their costs. Overall experts both physicians and
pharmacists feel that the government must frame rules and regulations
and ensure the quality and efficacy of the generic medicine and should
fix the prices of the medicines on a level platform and only then it
will be practical to implement for the doctors to prescribe the generic
medicines.
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