With fund shortage throwing a spanner in its plans to provide free medicines to the poor, the Modi Government is now mulling to make it mandatory for the doctors to recommend cheaper and easily available generic drugs.
In this regard, it is considering the recommendations of BJP MP Shanta Kumar-led parliamentary standing committee report on generic drugs. The panel had suggested that medical practitioners in the country, especially those in Government sector, should be legally bound to recommend generic drugs.
Interestingly, the report submitted in Parliament in 2012 was dumped by the UPA Government calling it “unfeasible”. It had instead promised to provide free drugs in public health facilities.
However, the NDA Government seems to be finding it difficult to provide free drugs, apparently in view of fund shortage. As a result, while it has no plans to start a central scheme for free drugs as was planned earlier, it has now left it on the State Governments to provide free medicines to the needy.
On its part, the Union Health Ministry feels that by just implementing the suggestion of the panel making it mandatory on the doctors to recommend generic drugs, at least 70 per cent of the poor could save out of pocket expenditure on costly branded medicines.
A senior official in the Union Health Ministry said that the panel has emphasised the need for widespread promotion of quality generic medicines in the country. “If implemented in the right earnest, it would help cut down the medicine budget of the poor people,” the official said, adding that steps are being taken how to make it mandatory for the doctors to recommend the generic drugs to the patients.
Since generics drugs are as effective as branded one and are cheaper, the Government must take all measures to protect the domestic generics industry. This is more important in view of the fact that a large section of our population is deprived of medicines on account of their high cost, the panel has said.
“The Committee believes that we must only promote consumption of unbranded generic medicine in the country. The Committee recommends that Government bring in legislation to make it legally binding on all the doctors to prescribe generic drugs in their prescriptions and/or clearly prescribe generic equivalents of branded medicines,” said the panel.
It also noted that it would not only ensure cheap medicines but also would give a spurt to our domestic pharma industry consisting of predominantly small and medium units.
In June last year, the Government had claimed that the free drugs programme was a part of the National Health Assurance Mission, which would also include free diagnostics and free health services. The Health Ministry had sought `500 crore budgetary support for the scheme.
However, later it shelved its plans because of no assurance from the Finance Ministry about the fund.