AP Govt urged to popularise generic medicines

Ongole: The poor patients, who cannot afford the branded drugs are left in the lurch, as government is not encouraging the sale of generic medicines in the state and it is limiting itself to opening nominal outlets.

To reduce burden on the patients, the State and Central governments are encouraging public to use generic drugs, which are cheaper than the branded drugs. So, the Central government introduced Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Kendra and the state government launched Anna Sanjeevani Generic Medical Shops.

The former health minister announced that the state government has plans to launch about 1,000 generic medical shops in the state, but ended up with just 320 in the last four years, while the regular medical shops number increased to over 48,000.

Generic medicines require encouragement and instill confidence among the patients who are using them. To boost it, the Supreme Court ordered the Medical Council of India in 2014, to direct all registered doctors write prescriptions in capital letters.

In 2016, the Supreme Court again ordered the apex body of medical practitioners to prescribe only the medicine combination, but not the name of the drug. But majority of the doctors are not following the orders of the Supreme Court and MCI.

Dr S Rajyalakshmi, DMHO of Prakasam district, said that they sent the instructions and orders of the Supreme Court and Medical Council of India to all doctors and ordered them to strictly follow the guidelines. She said that if any patient registers a complaint with the drug inspectors, they will initiate action against the doctor after conducting an inquiry.

As the doctors are not cooperating with the poor patients in using the generic drugs, the government is also not showing any interest in popularising the benefits of the generic drugs and making them available widely.

The government restricted the 320 generic medical shops in the state to sell only 70 types of drugs and ordered them to procure the stock from the Andhra Pradesh Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation only. 

Annapareddy Vijaybhaskar Reddy, president of the Andhra Pradesh Pharmacy Council, said that the procurement through APMSIDC has some flaws and the drugs it procures will be of low quality. He said that the patients are not getting all drugs they require on the prescription at the generic medical shops, hence, they are not approaching them yet again.

Vijaybhaskar Reddy said that 90 per cent of the drugs available in the country are generic but pseudo marketing is being done in the name of branded drugs. He also asked the government to provide a wide publicity that generic drugs and branded drugs are same and works alike.

He opined that if the government is really committed to help the poor patients, it should increase the number of generic medical shops and the drugs available in them. 

He suggested to the government that it should encourage the poor unemployed pharmacists to open the generic medical shops by providing loans and give freedom to procure the generic drugs from various companies.