VIJAYAWADA: At a time when the Andhra Pradesh government is preparing modalities to open Jan Aushadhi stores across the State to provide generic drugs to people at affordable prices, the common man is forced to shell out heavily on purchase of branded medicines owing to lack of strict norms to make generic drugs available to patients.
The pharmacies, especially those set up by corporate pharma companies and the ones functioning on the premises of corporate hospitals, are cashing in on the lack of technical knowledge of the commoners on generic drug formulations and pushing branded medicines which costs substantially more than their generic formulations. Even, they sell the generic medicines at their Maximum Retail Prices (MRP) though they are supposed to be sold on subsidy.
“Only experienced pharmacists, medical representatives and doctors can identify generic medicines. As the common man does not have the technical knowledge to identify the generic formulations, pharmacies are pushing branded medicines, despite the availability of their generic formulations.
Branded medicines make them earn good profits, but the common man suffers,” said Nerella Prashant, who works at the generic store in the Old Government General Hospital in Vijayawada. Further, the doctors also prescribe the patented formulations to patients as they get a lot of benefits from pharma companies. Even if a few prescribe generic drugs, they do not have the time to explain it to the patients and pharmacy shop owners use it to their advantage.
As the Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers that lays down the policies for the Department of Pharmaceuticals is yet to list out the details of the generic medicines, the pharma companies and the doctors are taking advantage of it.
The doctors working at the corporate hospitals do not prescribe generic formulations. On the other hand, it is alleged that pharma companies give gifts to doctors and even sponsor foreign trips to have their patent formulations prescribed. Meanwhile, medical representatives also leave no stone unturned to promote the branded drugs. “We work to meet our targets ensuring that doctors put the required indent for medicines. It is usual to give costly gifts and sponsor tours at times if any doctor is giving a good preference to our products,” a medical representative working for pharma company Cipla, said under the condition of anonymity.
It is said that the pharma companies take the advantage of strict laws to promote generic formulations. Moreover, pharma companies hardly provide separate labels on generic drugs for identification by the common man.