Over the years, prejudices about health care have been instilled in the minds of common man and one such overwhelming conception is that ‘quality is synonymous with high prices’. Need not be always. It is the common Indian mentality to set down ‘economical’ as ‘cheap’.
India has made huge advancements in the field of medical sciences and has proved its ability in producing quality branded generic medicines in most of the therapeutic categories. Although these medicines are placed in the market at reasonable prices as compared to the prices of their equivalents in most other countries, a large section of poor people in the country find it difficult to afford the more expensive category of branded medicines. This was the driving force behind launching the Jeevan Dhara- Generic Drug Campaign.
Visakhapatnam district collector J. Syamala Rao says that the key objective of the campaign is to ensure availability of quality medicines at affordable prices to all.
World Health Organization (WHO) defines a generic drug as “a pharmaceutical product, usually intended to be interchangeable with an innovator product that is manufactured without license from the innovator company and marketed after the expiry date of the patent or other exclusive rights.” Generic drugs are basically copies of off-patent brand name drugs that come in the same dosage, safety, strength, and quality and for the same intended use. They are also referred to as ‘Unbranded Formulations’.
A branded medicine is one which is produced by the innovator; and a generic medicine is one which is an equivalent and which is produced by companies other than the innovator company. “When seen from this angle, almost all medicines produced in our country are generic equivalents,” says the collector.
The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, an Act regulating and enforcing the Standard of Drugs in this country made no distinction between the brand and generic drugs, and as such have to comply with all the parameters prescribed under the Act, which only concludes that the drugs of the same composition and indication whether available in brand or generic names are of Standard Quality as long as they comply with the specifications or standards prescribed under the Act.
The companies in India give their own names to these generic drugs and become the ‘brand names’ or ‘branded generics’. Corporate companies spend huge money to promote and move their brands in the market by offering their own schemes to the doctors. When asked some of the outpatients at King George Hospital (KGH), they say doctors themselves prefer prescribing branded medicines over the government promoted generic medicines.
According to the collector, the coverage of quality generic medicines would reduce the unit cost of treatment per person. For example, Satheesh Kumar, store boy at KGH, Vizag, says that branded MetoprolXL 25 tablets are available at the average market rate of Rs. 42 for a pack of 10 tablets. Its generic is sold at Rs. 25 in Sanjeevani stores.
The cost of generic drugs averages 40 to 60% below the cost of the innovator or brand name drug. Experts state that a generic drug is pharmaceutically and therapeutically equivalent to the branded drug. “The reason for generic drugs not getting popular is due to the lack of awareness among people, and doctors not prescribing them. Hence doctors should prescribe generic drugs to the poor patients as a humanitarian gesture,” says Syamala Rao.
According to the Jeevan Dhara scheme, there are eight Sanjeevani outlets established and are being run with the help of District Rural Development Agency (DRDA). “The wide positive response from the people was obvious and we wish to have more such pharmaceutical stores at their disposal in the district,” DRDA project manager, Dasari Ratnakar, observed. The existing eight stores in the city have made a whopping Rs 85 lakh, and the public demand for more such units in the rural areas as well, he added.
The days when high cost of drugs deprived patients of treatment should be part of history. And this is only a new beginning to a new history.
