Shanta urges HP govt to promote generic drugs

Former Union minister Shanta Kumar, who is also Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce, today urged the Himachal Pradesh government to promote generic drugs to provide medicines to poor at affordable rates.
"Poor people would be able to get cheaper health services with the use of generic drugs as branded drugs were being sold at exorbitant prices, beyond reach of the poor," he said in a statement issued here.
Appreciating the initiative taken by doctors of the state to promote the use of these drugs, he said, "We need to bring a practical revolution for the use of generic drugs."

The government should bring a legislation making it compulsory for doctors to prescribe only low-cost generic drugs, he said.
He said there was a huge variation between prices of branded and generic medicines but it should be ensured by the government that medicines should be provided at cheaper rates to the common man on priority basis.
Kumar said that India is a leading player in the generics drug market and exports around 45,000 crore to 200 countries in the world.

Even institutions like UNICEF were meeting 60 per cent of their requirements of drugs from the Indian market since 2006-07 and seven domestic pharma companies were acquired by foreign players at highly over valued prices, he said.

He said that due to the lack of advertisement, generic drugs were not reaching the common man while branded drug manufacturers investing huge money on promotion and giving commission were selling drugs at very high prices.
"As per the survey by a panel, a specific branded drug for the treatment of cancer was sold to more than Rs 1 lakh but a generic cancer drug manufactured in India is available only for Rs 8,000," he noted.
Kumar said the World Health Organisation has found that generic medicine are available only in 20 to 40 per cent government hospitals and people are forced to go to private shops which patronise branded medicines which are very costly.