Assam govt hospitals will buy, prescribe generic medicines: CM

Assam government will make buying and prescribing of generic medicines mandatory in government hospitals, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said today.
Private pharmacies would also have to keep a certain percentage of their medicine stock in the form of generic medicines, Gogoi said.
This would cut cost of medicines and also check the practice of getting commission from pharmacies by doctors in government hospitals for prescribing branded medicines to patients there, he said.
"To change the mindset that the quality of branded medicines is better than generic ones, people should use generic medicines which will be cheaper with positive outcomes," Gogoi said.

In the USA generic medicines were sold to patients through pharmacies and "20 per cent of them are supplied by India", he said.
Speaking on the 'commission' practice, the chief minister said, "recently my relative was told in the Gauhati Medical College Hospital that its MRI machine was not working. Investigations revealed the machine was in working condition. This was done to get commission from MRI units outside the hospital," he said.