Hyderabad: What is exactly a generic drug, doctors are asking after the Medical Council of India sent a circular to hospitals, clinics and small nursing homes to prescribe generic drugs to their patients.
Generic medicines are being sold at three different price levels under the labels generic-generic, trade-generic and branded generic. Generic drugs are those that do not have a trademark and are not branded. They are sold on the names of their chemical combination. The government is keen to popularise these drugs as the they are less expensive when compared to branded drugs.
Doctors say the generics are not of good quality and their efficacy is not as good as that of branded drugs or branded generics. Dr Pradeep Deshpande, general physician, said, “We want to prescribe quality drugs that are effective. If the generics work, the government must ensure that they help us prescribe them. But there are three different price scales and we are confused as to which one we should opt for.”
The Indian medical system is doctor-centric and the patients prefer their doctors to prescribe the medicine by name. They would rather not have the pharmacist dispense a drug. Hence doctors have to prescribe drugs which are available, and effective. Dr K.K. Aggarwal, president of the Indian Medical Association, said, “The IMA wants the government to fix one price for all generic drugs. Generic drugs are the names of the molecule and that must be written by the doctor. It is for the pharmacists to give the molecules and their combination drugs to the people.”
Recalling the name of the molecule or chemical combination is proving to be quite a task for many doctors as they are used to identifying medicines by brand names. Teaching patterns need to be modified so that medical students learn the names of the various chemical combinations first.
Branded generic: These drugs are bioequivalents of the original product but are being marketed by another company with its own brand name. Branded generics have low research and development costs and sustainable sales. Paracetamol is sold as Crocin which is a brand name of the generic product. Prices differ from company to company for the same drug.
All the 3 have different price structures and is confusing doctors and patients.
To bring in a uniform price structure, drug control rules have to be strengthened and proper quality checks must be run to check the effectiveness of all the drugs.
Trademark laws do not allow generic drugs to look like the original drug. Therefore, their colour, size, flavour and shape are different.
