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Govt should revamp drug manufacturing & marketing system before making generic prescription mandatory: Manikantan
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Peethaambaran Kunnathoor, Chennai
March 07 , 2018
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Even as the Union government and the Medical Council of India (MCI) are
insisting for generic prescription of all drugs by the doctors, experts
are of the view that the government and the regulating body, before
making it mandatory, must ensure that the whole drug manufacturing and
marketing system in the country is hundred percent foolproof and fully
complying with all legal aspects.
Reacting to the instructions
given by Kerala Medical Council to their registered medical
practitioners, a senior pharmaceutical mentor and pharma consultant in
Chennai, Manikantan S A, said that before insisting on generic
prescription the government must focus on sprucing up the drug
manufacturing system throughout the country. However, Manikantan, who
formerly served as the managing director of Grandix Pharmaceuticals and
CEO of Global Brands of Strides Arcolab Ltd, welcomed all the healthcare
measures being introduced by the central and state governments towards a
healthy society.
If one doctor decides a particular molecule and
prescribes the generic name, only the pharmacist at the medical shop
will determine which company’s generic product should be dispensed to
the patient. The doctor has no role there and selection of medicine will
become the discretion of the pharmacist. Usually he will give the most
profitable generic version. Even for the generic products, prices may
vary according to various manufacturers, he opined.
“The most
profitable generic version may not be in good quality. Here, the
patients will land in peril, especially those with chronic lifestyle
disease. If one doctor prescribes the brand, it will be convincing as
the patient is fully aware of the quality, efficacy and safety of that
brand. The doctors always consider the life of his patient more than the
money he gets. By prescribing generic names, we are shifting the
decision making system from the doctor to the pharmacist who will decide
what kind of generic product should be given to a patient. This will
turn out to be disastrous as far as the lives of the patients are
concerned,” he told Pharmabiz.
There are several fixed dose
combination drugs like syrup, pediatric products, anti-diabetics,
anti-hypertensive..etc. The doctor cannot write all the generic names
and their quantities. The situation will be very difficult for the poor
people of the country. Doctors are the custodians of patients and none
can care the patients better than they do.
Pointing on several
drawbacks due to this new policy, he said if generic prescription is
made compulsory, apart from industry, it will impact more on lakhs of
employees. The brand marketing companies have employed thousands of
medical representatives and marketing professionals who will become
jobless.
While speaking to Pharmabiz he said in India the NPPA is
regulating the prices of all essential medicines, then what is the need
of a separate provision. This mandatory provision for generic
prescription may ultimately become disastrous unless the government
ensures all manufacturing units comply with WHO-GMP norms, and the
products put for marketing by manufacturers and marketers are taken for
quality testing in accredited government labs.
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