Why Are Doctors Still Prescribing High-Cost Brand Medicines? medbuzz.in/blogs/why-are-doctors-still-prescribing-high-cost-brand-medicines
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Posted by : Admin / On : February 17, 2021
The Union Ministry of Health, with its regulatory department Medical Council of India, has firmly assured doctors to prescribe their patients generic medicines. Even though Mr. Narendra Modi has given clear sanctioned superintendence and orders, the doctors have taken no action in India.
Why are Doctors Prescribing High-Cost Branded Medicines? In 2017, while inaugurating a Surat hospital, India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, stated that the government would assure that doctors prescribe only medicine with a generic name. The medicines with generic name are cheaper than the branded ones, and it also has the same chemical properties. Following the PM's announcement, the MCI released a circular directive to prescribe medicines with generic names and bold and capital letters. The PM exposed his purpose on profiting patients with low income, but it is more than three years now that the idea has not been paid any heed. Firstly, the goal was to serve the crores of inferior personages who die without the proper medication and treatment and, secondly, circulate the medicines in every corner of the country. There is no inadequacy of the medications needed for patients as a medicine for their lifeline. But, the Health Ministry or the MCI took any severe measures towards it; however, they have defeated it to conventionality as an issue that caused and finished with circulars only. Numerous reporters and journalists from distinct newspapers talked to many patients and physicians and went through manifold prescriptions. From those prescriptions, it was discovered that even those physicians who practice in Delhi, headquarters of the ministry and the council, do not prescribe the medicines with the generic name but suggests specific branded counterparts. It is not the case with only a particular city but across government hospitals and individual clinics. Because the regulation has become a matter of contention, the country's doctors are not confronting the government. Doctors declare that they are unhesitant to prescribe only those generic medicines that the pharmacists are willing to sell as they want to promote and profit from selling them. But as per several pharmacists, the doctors in the first place are not prescribing medicines with a generic name. Even being aware of Member of Parliaments' issue in the Parliament numerous times, the ministry has neglected to take up the appropriate earnest and is more comfortable slipping the onus to the MCI. In 2017, the Union Minister of State for Health pontificated questions in the Parliament correlated to prescribing medicines with a generic name. He addressed that medication with the generic name had been promoted to be used in the country. He also responded about the grievances linked to generic medicines that MCI itself perceives them. The question above and diverse other questions were asked to the Union Minister of State in the Parliament. An interpretation of such ones exposed that the Health Ministry lacked the ministry's earnestness concerning the matter. Private practitioners and official sources announced that the
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springs are given to the doctors and hospitals, and well known big pharmaceutical companies are very fruitful. Thus, as a result, they advise branded medicines, and these medicines fetch ten times more than generic medicines. In most instances, the patients responded that physicians caution against generic medicines when they ask the doctors about prescribing generic medication and that they might not work and can be harmful. Medications that are advised by the doctors are expensive by 30 to 80 percent. Countless poor people demand the pharmacologists to give shoddy alternative medicines as they backside allow the branded counterparts. Doctors welcome valuable offerings from the influential pharma companies like foreign tours, iPads, cars, and the doctors accommodate the medical organizations by supporting branded medications. When big companies produce the medication, the border price in these medicines is gigantic. Since these big pharma companies have thick pockets, they loosely spend on the doctors to recommend their costly medication. Medicine proprietors acknowledged that the medical representatives of a particular pharmaceutical company could retain a tab, undoubtedly whether the doctor in his area is prescribing the medication of his organization or not. It indicates that the doctor is operating for the pharmaceutical company if the request for that appropriate medicine in that field advances. Also, these companies provide the retailers' border numerous times more to stock their medication. Thus, the pharmacies or the medical shop proprietors promote and bootleg their medicines of a distinct brand to gain profit. In 2008, Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana was launched by the government. It was touted as an aspiration to make generic medicines accessible at affordable charges. But, this too has worsened, and India till now has only 4,900 approximate generic medical stores. Official sources stated that the pharmaceutical entryway has directed to compel the Health Ministry's determination. It guarantees that the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana does not thrive as it will considerably influence their gains if the centers wipe off. Medicines with generic names accessible in the market or generic medical stores are very cheap and allow equivalent clinical advantages. Although the PM himself is pushing and accelerating to open more generic medical stores like Jan Aushadhis, generic medicines have not been authorized to take origins. Crores of financing have been made to penetrate the generic medical stores. If more generic medical stores are operated, it will be a disadvantage for the big and branded pharmaceutical companies. It is the reason why generic medicine stores are not taken as precedence. Even big pharma companies attempt everything to ensure that generic medicines' usage does not enhance a culture. Unless the Health Ministry and MCI take a hard dig into generic medical stores and guide medication with the generic name, the pharmaceutical bills will be mounting. Poor people will eventually be left to die without medicines or food.
Conclusion Various steps have to be implemented so that doctors prescribe medicines with the generic name. The Central Drug Standard Control Organization- (CDSCO), the regulator's office, should list all the medicines in the pharmacy market with their generic name and their cost on a public portal for everyone to access them. The CDSCO must also ensure that all the medications with generic names are bioequivalent and interchangeable. Generic medicines manufacturing organizations should be made GMP acquiescent. The interference between medicines with generic names and branded medicines should be resolved, and physiques should be educated about it and the price fluctuation. These actions would produce glassiness and answerability to the healthcare policy. It would also promote the patients and prescribers' determination about the application of medicines with generic names. 3/4
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