PM Modi: Will bring law to ensure doctors prescribe generic drugs
April 18, 2017In a move that can shake up pharmaceutical companies and doctors, PM Narendra Modi recently hinted that the government could be bringing a new law to ensure doctors prescribe generic drugs instead of the current practice of prescribing branded medicines. Analysts who track the sector say that the Prime Minister’s statement hints at government intention in making prescribing of generics mandatory.
While inaugurating a multi-speciality hospital in Surat on Monday, PM Modi said, "Doctors write the prescription in such a way that people do not understand the handwriting and he has to buy that medicine from private stores at high prices’’. He further added, "We will bring in a legal framework by which if a doctor writes prescription, he has to write in it that it will be enough for patients to buy generic medicines and not buy any other medicines”.
"See these companies which are manufacturing medicines, they used to charge Rs 1,200 for an injection. We called everyone (pharma companies) and ensured that the prices are reduced. The prices of 700 medicines were capped so that poor people get medicines at reasonable rates when they face grave diseases," Modi said.
It is a popular belief that many doctors predominantly prescribe those brands, which are promoted by a pharmaceutical company even when a low-cost generic substitute is available. However, doctors maintain that to get the best possible outcome, drugs of the highest quality and best possible pharmacological properties should be prescribed, and they usually prescribe drug brands that meet this criteria.
Meanwhile, the Indian government has been trying to make drugs affordable and is urging doctors to prescribe generic drugs as far as possible. To make drug prices cheaper the government is including more medicines into the National List of Essential Medicines. The government has also launched Jan Aushadhi programme, under which the government provides essential medicines at reasonable rates at specially established shops to provide affordable generic drugs to the underprivileged.
Industry bodies like Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance are concerned by the move on grounds that it empowers chemists over the doctor to decide which particular generic brand to dispense to the patient. Indian pharmaceutical market which is worth little over a trillion rupees is a branded generic market – with thousands of copycat brands competing against each other, forcing some of the bigger companies to spend large amounts on marketing, selling and promotional activities to make doctors write more prescriptions of their brands.