New Delhi: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has called for a public awareness campaign to promote generic medicines and augment their production in the country.
Speaking during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha, Dhenkanal MP Thatagata Satpathy said, “Will there be enough generic medicines? Does the Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers have a plan to launch an awareness campaign through the media and the Internet to make people, both doctors and patients, aware that they should opt for generic medicines as they are good and cheap.”
The Dhenkanal MP said that in many parts of Odisha like Dhenkanal and Angul, all district headquarters hospitals (DHHs) have generic medicine outlets, but they are either unstaffed or have no medicines.
He also alleged corruption in hospitals. “We know there is corruption in hospitals as doctors are induced in many ways, not only through money, but through many other ways to prescribe medicines manufactured by big MNCs whenever possible,” Satpathy said.
He called for making generic medicines a public movement. “When people see drug names and do not know their chemical composition they do not know what medicine they are taking. So, unless you carry out an awareness campaign and increase the production of generic medicines there is no point in blaming the government or doctors,” he added.
In his reply, Minister of State of Chemicals and Fertilisers Rao Inderjit Singh said the government had launched a mobile application containing all information about generic medicines.
He also said that the share of generic medicines has increased to seven per cent from around three per cent during the tenure of the BJP government at the Centre.
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