Unable to make pharmaceutical companies reduce the prices of essential drugs, the government is now planning to find out if doctors are over-prescribing medicines.
The idea is to set up an independent panel of experts to place prescriptions under scrutiny and penalise doctors found to be over-prescribing.
The proposal has the backing of consumer organisations, and the department of chemicals is serious about it.
The need to scrutinise prescriptions is necessitated by the fact that many pharma companies give incentives to doctors to push their brand of medicines that may be costlier than other alternatives available in the market.
?When doctors prescribe more medicines than are actually required, they not only put a financial burden on patients, but also puts them in harm?s way as an over-dose would have side effects,? secretary general of Consumer Unity and Trust Society Pradeep S Mehta said.
Asked if action would be taken against doctors if they are found over-prescribing, Mehta said, ?The panel would study a few prescriptions of any one doctor who is found to be over-prescribing. He should definitely be penalised if he is playing with the health of patients.?
Drugs companies take huge margins even on generic drugs even though some companies may not have spent a penny on drug research and development. A patented drug could demand premium, but why should generic drugs be sold at a high price, asked chief executive officer of Consumer Voice Bejon Misra. The government should ensure that drug companies, at least, made essential drugs available to the poor at affordable prices, Misra added.
But pharma industry representatives said the issue was more of access rather than affordability. The Indian pharma industry has helped reduce drug prices the world over and that, the prices in the country are already very low, even when compared with other developing countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, they said. India produces about 14% of the total drugs across the globe, but contributed just 1 % when it came to value, they added.