If you have ever been to a pharmacy, there is a chance that you have encounter a scenario where the pharmacist told you that some medicine on your prescription is unavailable, but they can give you the same drug but from a different brand, which is also cheaper.
And you likely bought the alternative offer by the pharmacist because it is the same and less expensive drug.
What you just bought is call as generic medicine, and going forward, it will be the standard practice for doctors across India.
NMC makes Prescription of Generic Medicines Compulsory
National Medical Council (NMC) has mandated that now doctors can prescribe only generic medicines. As per the new NMC guidelines, all doctors will mandatorily be require to prescribe generic drugs failing which they will be penalise and even their license to practice may also be suspend for a particular period.
The NMC, in its notified ‘Regulations relating to Professional Conduct of Registered Medical Practitioners,” also ask doctors to avoid prescribing branded generic drugs.
As per the regulations notified on 2nd August 2023 :
"India's out-of-pocket spending on medications accounts for a major proportion of public spending on health care. Further, generic medicines are 30 per cent to 80 per cent cheaper than branded drugs. Hence, prescribing generic medicines may overtly bring down health care costs and improve access to quality care."
Under the regulations’ generic medicine and prescription guidelines, the NMC define generic drugs as a “drug product that is comparable to brand/reference listed product in dosage in dosage form, strength, route of administration, quality and performance characteristics, and intended use.“
What is Generic Medicines?
According to the USFDA, a generic drug or generic medicine is a medication created to be the same as an already market brand-name drug in dosage form, safety, strength, route of administration, quality, performance characteristics, and intended use.
Why IMA Oppose MNC Notification?
But the move to force doctors to prescribe only generic medicines is facing pushback from the medical community.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) equated the move to running trains without tracks.
IMA said in a statement :
“The ill-advised steps taken by NMC on the issue of generic drugs is an emergency. The regulation is mandatory for doctors to prescribe only generic drugs. It is a matter of great concern for IMA since this directly impacts patients’ care and safety. Generic promotion needs to be genuine. Running trains without tracks is how the present promotion of generic drugs by NMC appears to be,”.
The IMA further said that if serious about implementing generic drugs, the government should give licence only to generics and not to any brand drugs while ensuring quality of generic drugs.
IMA said in a statement :
"If doctors are not allow to prescribe branded drugs, then why such drugs should be license at all, given that modern medicine drugs can be dispensed only on the prescription of doctors of this system,".
Why Generic Medicines not the Same as Branded Drugs?
One of the major issues, doctors and health experts point out about generic medicines is quality.
Since pharma companies invent medicines, they go through various stages of quality and safety checks before they are approved.
In most cases, the inventing pharma company also gets a patent for the same.
But after the patent expires, other pharma companies are also allow to make the same drug using the same formulation, at which point it becomes a generic drug.
Since the non-patented pharma company did not have to invest in R&D, they can sell them at a lower price than the inventor.
Generic Drugs don’t go through Same Quality Checks
Also, since the generic drug manufacturer is following the original company’s formula, they only have to provide evidence that their drug is similar and does not have to do trials to show the drug is effective.
