Modi mulls rules for doctors to prescribe generic drugs

“The prices of 700 medicines were capped so that poor people get medicines at reasonable rates when they face chronic diseases,” Modi said

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

ON NEW schemes being introduced, Modi said, “We are starting Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana for cheaper medicines in hospitals. In the coming days, the government will bring in a legal framework under which the doctors will have to prescribe generic medicines, which are cheaper than equivalent branded drugs, to patients.”

“Doctors write prescriptions in such a way that poor people do not understand the handwriting, and he has to buy medicines from private stores at high prices,” Modi said, adding, “We will bring in a legal framework by which if a doctor writes a prescription, he has to write in it that it will be enough for patients to buy generic medicine and he need not buy any other medicine,” he said.

About reducing the prices of stents and costliest medicines PM Narendra Modi said, “ The Centre had recently introduced a health policy, which came up after nearly 15 years. We called a meeting with the pharmaceutical firms, charging Rs 1,200 for injections and medicines worth Rs 350 to Rs 400, and worked out on the production costs and other expenses.”

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“The prices of 700 medicines were capped so that poor people get medicines at reasonable rates when they face chronic diseases,” Modi said, adding, “ We have framed rules in such a way that those medicines which were available in the market at Rs 1,200 had been reduced to Rs. 70 to Rs. 80. Through such rules, prices of over 700 such medicines have been reduced.” “We have also capped the prices of stents used in heart ailments,” he said.

Modi also stressed on preventive health care saying if people adopt it, they will not have to visit hospitals. “Preventive healthcare is very important. My Swachhta Abhiyan (cleanliness campaign) is aimed at preventive healthcare as it has been proved that many diseases are contracted if we live in an unclean environment,” he said, adding, “Yoga is also very important for wellness and I am running a campaign to make it popular across the world.”

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