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Journalism of Courage
Medical practitioners and office bearers of the Pune unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) have strongly opposed the regulation making it mandatory for doctors to prescribe only generic drugs. They also demanded that the National Medical Commission (NMC) should come out with a list or approve the manufacturing of only those medicines that they want registered practitioners to prescribe.
“One Nation, One Drug, One Price is what we have asked for,” doctors across the IMA told The Indian Express and demanded that the NMC regulation be deferred.
The IMA has registered a strong protest about this move and according to top officials, it is hopeful to meet Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya over the issue next week.
The Ethics and Medical Registration Board of the NMC on August 2 had issued a directive that entailed writing a prescription of generic drugs. “The NMC insists on its ethics and guidelines to write prescriptions only in a generic name. This means the onus of exercising the choice shifts from the doctor to the medical shop. Now market forces rather than the profession will determine the choice. Will this assure that the patient gets a generic version of the drug? Or will the brand of the pharmacy’s choice be dispensed?” reads an official letter issued by the IMA headquarters.
The chief of IMA Pune, Dr Raju Variyani, told The Indian Express that for several years now they have been asking for quality control of all medicines. “It is an established fact that the quality of generic drugs is inferior to branded drugs. If we prescribe generic drugs of poor quality, the patients will suffer. The safety and care of patients is the doctor’s responsibility. We can’t compromise on quality. Instead of telling doctors to stop prescribing branded drugs, the government should tell pharma companies to stop manufacturing branded drugs,” Dr Variyani said.
According to Dr Sanjay Patil, Chairman, Hospital Board of India, IMA-Pune, the directive to prescribe generic names of medicines is impractical. “After receiving a prescription, a chemist will then have to give the medicine from the so-called list of generic drugs. At this point, there will be great confusion and a possibility of compromised quality of drugs,” Dr Patil said.
“The NMC since its inception is known for its ambiguous and impractical decisions,” Dr Ravi Wankhedkar, the former national president of Indian Medical Association, lashed out.
“Being a regulator of modern medicine in India, it was supposed to safeguard purity and dignity of the modern medicine profession. Unfortunately, it is doing exactly the opposite,” Dr Wankhedkar said, adding that the compulsion of generic medicines is an ill thought move. “If the government is really serious about affordable drugs, then they should make it compulsory for drug manufacturers to make generic drugs only,” Dr Wankhedkar said.
