Letters: Generic drugs to the fore

Apropos D G Shah's article "Why drug pricing policies can be injurious to health" (October 29), whenever the prices of certain drugs are revised, some of them disappear from the market. The typical reply from the local chemist is there is no supply, which means that the manufacturer has either stopped or curtailed production. Price control has to be advisory and if the big pharmaceutical companies cannot afford to do it, the smaller companies should fill the gap. For this to happen, the use of generic names has to be popularised.

The doctors who prescribe the drugs, chemists who stock them and the consumers who eventually use them are not aware of the generic names. The attempts by the government to enter the pharmaceutical sector in the past, to make drugs available to the masses at a fair price, have been a disaster. Most of these public sector undertaking drug companies have folded up after recording huge losses. Pharmaceutical companies should also be asked to display the generic name prominently on each pack. This will familiarise and educate the consumer over a period of time.

M M Gurbaxani Bangalore

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