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New IMA president bats for generic medicine

Buy them over their branded counterparts and save 40%, says Dr Tulpule

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Taking over as the new president of the city chapter of Pune branch of Indian Medical Association (IMA), general surgeon Dr Maya Tulpule has a new mission at hand – ensure that the monthly medical bills of patients suffering from chronic illnesses see a considerable drop.

Associated with several social organisations in the past as well as producing a film on the issue of social stigma faced by vitiligo patients (leukoderma) patients, Tulpule has now decided to take up the issue of low-cost medicines for patients seriously during her tenure as the IMA president.

Explaining the difference between branded and generic drugs, Tulpule said that most patients buy drugs based on their brand names whereas if the same drugs are bought based on generic names, the cost of drugs can come down by at least 40% or more.

The only difference between branded and generic drugs is the price as the content and strength of drugs remains the same but the latter are low cost and not protected by patents.

“At the moment, we have readied a list of 72 generic versions of common drugs, which are required by patients suffering from chronic illnesses like diabetes, hypertension, cardiac ailments etc. Merely giving out names is not enough since the patients should be aware of where these drugs are available as well. So, we will also provide a list of chemists shops where these generic drugs are stocked and can be bought from. Also, we are in process of constantly updating the list,” she added.

Recently, the Medical Council of India (MCI) came out with a circular asking doctors to write prescriptions based on generic and not brand names so as to give patients the choice of buying cheaper drugs. The government also decided to set up generic medicine shops of its own in each of its hospitals to ensure cheaper drugs are available to patients.

For example, if the branded version of a 10-tablet strip of commonly used painkiller Aspirin costs about Rs10 then its generic version would be available for Rs1.5–Rs2.

“Many patients cannot afford such high costs and rather than having them discontinue medication, we need to ensure that cheaper drugs can be made available to support these patients,” she said.

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