Pharmaceuticals official calls for making cheaper drugs

The seminar was held under the joint auspices of Christian Medical Association of India (CMAI), US Embassy in India and CMC, Vellore, for stakeholders in the city.

He contended that a large number of people would benefit if the prices of medicines were brought down by the pharmaceutical companies, adding that for its part, the Central government had launched the Jan Aushadhi scheme to provide quality medicines at affordable cost. The medicines provided by the government were three to 10 times cheaper than in the market, he added.

Later, in their presentation on prescription standards of doctors, generic or branded; and role of pharmacists, Dr J.V. Peter of CMC, Vellore, and Dr S. Sriram of Sri Ramakrishna Institute of Paramedical Sciences, Coimbatore, said a majority of errors or confusion could be avoided if doctors wrote legibly while prescribing medicines, including correct spelling of the drugs and dosage.

Dispensing errors or look-alike errors at the pharmacy level could be avoided if bar coding was resorted to.

“The change should come from the individual. A pediatrician at our hospital takes sufficient time to write the names of the medicines in capital letters… Certain hospitals have switched to electronic prescription to avoid manual errors or mistakes arising out of drug causing drug interaction,” said Dr Sriram.

According to Dr Bimal Charles, general secretary of CMAI, the seminar was being held in the city for the first time to create awareness among healthcare providers, to promote safe medicine. “Prescribing the right dose and the right medicine at the appropriate time and dispensing the right drugs helps to improve the health of the patients,” he added.