Doctors must prescribe generic medicines in legible letters: Ananth Kumar

The relevant MCI regulation proposed is to be read as: “Every physician should prescribe drugs with generic names legibly and preferably in capital letters and he/she shall ensure that there is a rational prescription and use of drugs.” This regulation, as of now, urges doctors to prescribe generic drugs “as far as possible”.

The minister said this was part of government’s efforts to make good quality medicines available to all at affordable prices. He said the National List of Essential Medicines of 2015 was being revised to include more medicines. The Jan Aushadhi programme, under which government provides essential medicines at reasonable rates at specially established shops, is also being reinforced. Kumar said the government planned to open 3,000 Jan Aushadhi outlets to provide affordable generic drugs to the poor.

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Ramnaresh Agarwal of Samajwadi Party, who had initiated the discussion, pointed out the huge disparities in the prices of branded drugs and their generic alternatives. He said hospitals and doctors were making a mockery of medical ethics, and there seemed no way to rein them in.

CPI’s D Raja said the government was compounding the problem by not supporting public sector pharmaceutical companies, which were on the verge of closing down. Kumar countered that the government had no plans to close these PSUs. In fact, one of them, Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited, had registered an operating profit this year after several years, he said. “All the five pharmaceutical PSUs will soon start making profits. The government has no intention of closing them down,” Ananth Kumar said.