Hyderabad: Miffed doctors object to NMC’s generic drugs diktat

Hyderabad: The doctors have objected to the notification issued by the NMC directing the doctors to prescribe only generic drugs as they said that it was an ill-advised step and also it impacts patients’ care and safety.

The doctors said that the NMC had no authority to ask the doctors to write generic medicine and stressed on the need for genuine generic promotion. The IMA National President Dr Sharad Kumar Agarwal said that the decision of the NMC was like running trains without tracks. NMC insists on its ethics guidelines to write prescriptions only in generic names. This measure is just shifting the choice from a medical practitioner who is primarily concerned, trained and responsible for the patients’ health than a chemist/person sitting in the chemist shop, who is selling drugs. This naturally wouldn’t be in the best interest of the patient, said the IMA president. If doctors were not allowed to prescribe branded drugs, then why such drugs should be licensed at all, given that modern medicine drugs can be dispensed only on prescription of doctors of this system, he questioned.

The National Medical Council had issued a notification on August 2, which states the doctors should prescribe only generic medicines or they would be penalised and even they might lose their license to practice.

The doctors said that if the government was serious about implementing generic drugs, it should give licence only to generics and not to any branded drugs while ensuring quality of generic drugs. Making quality brands available in the market but disallowing doctors who were responsible for patients’ health, from prescribing them seems dubious, he said.

The IMA Telangana Scientific Committee Convener Kiran Madhala said, “We should maintain the quality check on manufacturing of drugs because as per the data from Lok Sabha, 3 per cent of drugs analysed are substandard. Maintaining the quality is important to encourage such moves.”

NMC should work in coordination with all stakeholders but it is taking independent decisions. How can NMC which don’t have control over SDRAs which manufacture generic medicines can dictate doctors, he questioned.

Dr Kiran said that the SDRAs (State Drug Regulatory Authority) are appointed by the State Department of Health, which have the primary responsibility. Most of SDRAs are under-staffed, manufacturing, testing, distribution and sale of generic medicines are controlled by SDRAs, he said.