Right Prescription - Indian Express
For a law on generic medicines to work, it must go beyond doctor-patient binary, address each link in pharma chain
On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the government is contemplating a law that will make it binding for doctors to prescribe generic medicines. The proposed legislation has the potential of offering the patient a greater say in the choice of a medicine. “We will bring in a legal framework by which if a doctor writes a prescription, he has to write in it that it will be enough for patients to buy generic medicine and he need not buy any other medicine,” the PM is reported to have said. The PM has signalled the government’s intention to end the malpractice of doctors dispensing only costly drugs.
Making it incumbent on the doctor to prescribe a generic drug would mean that the prescription will detail the medicine’s composition — the salts — leaving the choice of the brand on the patient. However, for such a choice to be effective, the proposed law needs to go beyond the doctor-patient binary and target each link in the pharma industry’s chain of corruption.
A large number of patients in the country are illiterate and even many literate patients are not well-versed with medical terms and drug composition. There are, for example, more than 500 generic versions for the anti-bronchial pneumonia formula, amoxycillin and potassium clavulanate, that cost between Rs 70 to Rs 300 for a packet of 10 tablets. A patient armed with a prescription detailing the composition of the medicine could still be dependent on a pharmacist to make the most suitable drug choice for her. And by all accounts, a pharmacist is likely to be even less sensitive to a patient’s medical — and financial — condition than the doctor. The efficacy of the proposed law will hinge on the ways in which it brings pharmacists — and not just doctors — under its ambit.
The generic medicine industry will also have to pull up its socks. Last year, 27 commonly-used medicines in the country failed quality tests. The drugs were found wanting on several counts, including false labelling and inadequate quantity of ingredients. Ensuring quality of drugs is a problem in the absence of adequate regulations and shortage of drug inspectors and lab facilities to check drug quality.
In most cases, failure to comply with standards results in a short-term suspension of a manufacturer’s production licence — hardly an effective deterrent when manufacturers have several production units. The government’s push for generic drugs is likely to come a cropper if it cannot ensure quality drugs in the first place. The move needs to be backed by adequate regulatory and legal provisions.
IMPORTANT WORDS FROM ARTICLE & THEIR MEANING
1) Contemplating (विचार) - Con-tem-plate-ing
- Meaning - look thoughtfully for a long time at - Verb
- Synonyms - view, regard
- Antonyms - forget, ignore
- Example - It was a tough choice contemplating whether to buy the SUV or truck.
2) Binding (बाध्यकारी) - Bind-ing
- Meaning - a strong covering holding the pages of a book together - Noun
- (of an agreement or promise) involving an obligation that cannot be broken - Adjective
- Synonyms - unbreakable, permanent
- Antonyms - optional, secondary
- Example - An understanding was not worth acknowledging and definitely not binding to the new One.
3) Prescribe (औषध-निर्देशन) - Pris-cry-ibe
- Meaning - state authoritatively or as a rule that (an action or procedure) should be carried out - Verb
- Synonyms - order, stipulate
- Antonyms - confuse, disallow
- Example - Instead of banning, we prescribe age restrictions and plastic wrappers.
4) Generic (सामान्य) - Gen-eric
- Meaning - characteristic of or relating to a class or group of things; not specific - Adjective
- a consumer product having no brand name or registered trademark - Noun
- Synonyms - universal, blanket
- Antonyms - exclusive, individual
- Example - The generic term is derived from the Arabic Ouaran.
5) Dispensing (वितरण) - Dis-pen-se
- Meaning - distribute or provide (a service or information) to a number of people - Verb
- Synonyms - distribute, assign
- Antonyms - conceal, hide
- Example - First let's dispense with the action-hero category.
6) Incumbent (निर्à¤à¤°) - In-cum-bent
- Meaning - necessary for (someone) as a duty or responsibility - Adjective
- the holder of an office or post - Noun
- Synonyms - binding, holder
- Antonyms - unnecessary
- Example - The incumbent store manager is not happy about having to train the person who is taking his job.
7) Ambit (सीमा) - Am-bit
- Meaning - the scope, extent, or bounds of something - Noun
- Synonyms - boundary, compass
- Example - I suggest Innovation should be kept away from the ambit of 'Jugaad'.
8) Efficacy (प्रà¤ावोत्पादकता) - Effi-k-c
- Meaning - the ability to produce a desired or intended result - Noun
- Synonyms - competence, potency
- Antonyms - failure, idleness
- Example - Since the traffic reports have not been announced yet, the efficacy of the new drunk driving laws cannot be confirmed.
9) Concise (संक्षिप्त) - Cun-size
- Meaning - giving a lot of information clearly and in a few words; brief but comprehensive - Adjective
- Synonyms - short, succinct
- Antonyms - lengthy, wordy
- Example (English) - To be concise is to say much with just a few words.
- Example (Hindi) - संक्षिप्त या मितà¤ाषी होना कम शब्दों में ही अपनी बात कह देने जैसा है।
Now considering the article above as a Reading Comprehension question, try to answer the following -
- Are generic drugs as effective as brand-name drugs?
- In India why aren't generic drugs prescribed since they are cheaper and equally effective than their branded counterparts?
Given below are some words to check your vocabulary you can make sentences with those words in the comment section which will be reviewed by us.
- Intention
- Malpractice
- Comply
- Detailing