Despite five established domestic drug firms manufacturing and marketing the H1N1 drug, Oseltamivir, at half the cost in the country, it is Swiss drug firm Roche Holding AG, which seems to be having the last laugh. One look at the latest retail sales figures of the drug show that Roche?s brand ?Tamiflu? is selling over 10 times more than all the generic drugs put together.
Sample this, the latest internal figures that the government has compiled shows that since September, when the government permitted the retail sale of the H1N1 drug, Roche?s Tamiflu has sold 4,47,340 tablets while all generic drugs that include Hetero?s Fluvir, Natco?s Natflu, Cipla?s Anti-flu have sold around 44,725 tablets combined in the 50-odd shops of national capital territory. This is despite the fact that Roche?s drug is available in only two outlets while the other drugs are being marketed in over 40 outlets. Also, while Tamiflu costs Rs 950 per strip (10 tablets), Hetero?s equivalent, the largest selling generic drug costs Rs 450 (10 tablets). Cipla?s Anti-flu costs Rs 470 per 10 tablets while Natco?s Natflu costs around Rs 480.
Interestingly, Roche is the only player in the H1N1 drug market, which doesn?t manufacture the drug in the country. This is because ?Tamiflu? in common parlance has become synonymous with ?Oseltamivir?, the generic or salt name of the drug and most of the prescriptions which are being written out by doctors for H1N1 infected patients carry the name of ?Tamiflu?. Even though the Medical Council of India?s Code of Ethics Regulation, 2002, prescribes the use of generic names of a drug in prescription, it is not practiced as a rule among the doctors. The MCI says ?every physician should, as far as possible, prescribe drugs with generics name (salt name)?.
Not all experts agree. ?We haven?t yet reached a stage where we could adopt the practice of writing only salt names on prescriptions. Our chemists often tear apart the strip without checking the print of relevant information on batch number, manufacturers address. If things go wrong catching anonymous manufacturers becomes very difficult,? said C M Gulati, editor, Monthly Index of Medical Specialties.
Gulati added that the media also inadvertently played a significant role in promoting Roche?s brand since the pandemic outbreak. In every public discourse that was held around the flu, the word Tamiflu was repeated many times over, partly because of the ease of using it over ?Oseltamivir? and partly because Indian players hadn?t launched their versions as retail sale was allowed only in September.