Govt tells doctors to go cheap

Don’t get puzzled if your doctor writes an unheard-of drug on your prescription instead of the usual painkiller or analgesic tablet you are used to.  The Union health ministry has given a diktat to government doctors that they must prescribe cheaper generic alternatives along with costly branded drugs.

Sources said health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has taken the step to break the nexus between doctors and pharmaceutical companies and wants the states to follow suit. “It has been found that doctors prescribe expensive antibiotics and painkillers produced by multinational pharmaceutical companies even though there are generic alternatives,” Azad said.

“It often transpires that these companies sponsor foreign jaunts, shower gifts or give commission to the doctors.” Azad has ordered government hospitals to make generic drugs available in their dispensaries. A ministry official said: “Though generic medicines have the same effect, doctors prescribe branded ones.”

But doctors say generic drugs are not easily available. “Trade names (branded drugs) are popular and easily available,” said Dr Dharam Prakash, secretary, Indian Medical Association. “So it is important that generic names of drugs are made available to doctors so they know which medicines to prescribe.”

Generic drug suppliers contested the argument. “Even if doctors do not know the names of the medicines, they can prescribe the salt name,” said Darshan Mittal, president, Delhi Generic Medicine Dealers Association. “Generic drugs are cheaper and equally effective, and are easily available.”

A generic drug is a copy of a branded drug. It is as safe and effective as the branded one, but comes at a fraction of the price. Generic drug manufacturers do not spend on drug discovery and trials. Instead, they reverse-engineer known drug compounds. India is the fourth-largest exporter of generic drugs.