The enforcement of prescription of drugs by their generic names is inadequate to provide people with access to cheaper medicines or to mitigate the effects of unhealthy competition among pharmaceutical companies.
Even as the Medical Council of India has warned doctors of action if found violating its 2016 notification, which amended clause 1.5 of the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002, and has mandated physicians to prescribe medicines by their generic names, there are several other aspects that need to be addressed for the move to benefit the masses.
While, at the outset, the decision to insist on prescription of drugs by their generic names appears to be an effective tool to undermine the hegemony of pharmaceutical giants on the drugs market and to give consumers the option to go for unbranded and cheaper-but-effective medicines, the trouble is that it will take a doctor far greater effort to prescribe a combination drug and its dosage.
That is not only time-consuming but also paves the way for more errors in the absence of adequate facilities for all doctors to provide clear, legible prescriptions to their patients. Doctors may also have to mention the numbers of formulations as given in the national drug code to clearly identify a compound. That is a big task, given the volume of patients the healthcare system in India handles each day. Measures will also have to be taken for double-checking prescriptions to ensure their accuracy, if doctors have to adhere to the MCI notification.
While the government intends to provide people with the opportunity to buy unbranded drugs of the same quality as that of a branded one from pharmacies, the biggest factor making the move to enforce prescription by generic names ineffective is the paucity of such medicines in the general market.
Pharmacists in most parts of the country sparingly stock up on unbranded medicines as the profit margins on these are low; even if they stock up on such medicines, they do so only for fast moving drugs. Another issue with prescribing medicines by their generic names would be that patients, many of whom are unfamiliar with medical jargon or are illiterate, will not be able to make out what is written in the prescription and to also ensure that they have received the right medicines.
In the absence of quality packaging, the buyer may even find it difficult to identify the right drug while taking them. The paucity of Jan Aushadhi outlets is another factor that deters the penetration of unbranded drugs. If an individual will have to spend time and money on travel to reach such an outlet, it nullifies any benefit s/he may otherwise have in buying a generic, unbranded drug.
The government will, therefore, need to work on multiple fronts to ensure that people are able to get quality drugs for less. It must also keep in mind that the imposition of more restrictions will entail greater costs for companies producing them to comply with and in turn will raise the price of medicines. Prescription of generic medicines must not be treated as a panacea that would cure the pharmaceuticals market of its ills.
