Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Medicines should be made affordable to common man' that was published in Newsband

Medicines should be made affordable to common man

Indian doctors should prescribe generic medicines in place of costly, branded ones. There is need to move to low-cost generic medicines on a large scale. The poor are impoverished further by drug costs. It is vital, therefore, that governments make listed essential medicines available free or nearly free to all in hospitals through higher public spending, widening access to generics through Jan Aushadhi outlets, and closely monitoring professional practice to eliminate prescription of irrational, non-essential drugs that have no curative effect.

Indian pharmaceutical manufacturing did in the past face censure over quality. For example, Ranbaxy had pleaded guilty to felony charges in the U.S. three years ago for adulteration of its products and failure to meet standard manufacturing practices. This highlights the need for close regulatory oversight. All Indian manufacturers — public and private — should meet the internationally recognised Good Manufacturing Practice standards.

At the same time, the lone solution available in front of the common man is to take all possible efforts to remain fit thereby keep the doctor away - it could be by food control, moderate exercise on a daily basis. Both these will not cost much to anyone.

The cost of medicines is the most critical component of health expenditure in India. There is a lot of people who do not take treatment due to financial problems. Any measure to reduce the cost of medicines will facilitate many more people accessing healthcare services. In this respect, one measure could be shift to generic drugs - doctors should prescribe in generic name and chemists should dispense generic drugs if there is a generic prescription. It has been reported that government is in the process of introducing a new law which will require doctors to prescribe in generic names and people can buy generic drugs from Jan Aushadhi stores.

The nexus between the Corporate hospitals, pharmacies, doctors and specifically the Drug companies seem to take the patients for granted and the medicines are so expensive that they become costly and unaffordable. Even If the Government subsidizes a few medicines for BP and diabetes and Heart ailments the doctors seem to be prescribing costly medicines to the patients although the medicines have the same potency.

There is need to give the best high quality Medicines at reasonable cost to the patients. There is possibility of bribe and kick bags exchange involving political leaders and pharma companies which needs to be thoroughly investigated. The media also has a responsibility to publicize such initiatives so that the common man can buy drugs at affordable prices.

The existing skyrocketed costs of essential drugs including antibiotics clearly signifies that healthcare in India is a sheer business, investing the poor lives of the destitute. It is an open secret that life expectancy rate in India has declined drastically thanks to the increased carbon levels in the quality air, counterfeit medicines, devastating pandemics, drug resistant diseases and compromised quality of healthcare. Resultantly, chronic diseases caused by deteriorating environmental quality require almost lifetime medical aid under the supervision of expert physician, while expensive drugs will weaken the health and wealth of an unfortunate patient beyond physical and financial recovery. Taking advantage of this loophole, corporate hospitals loot lifetime savings from the ill-fated patients in the name of quality healthcare. Moreover, health insurance organizations will not come forward to offer financial aid as treating long-term ailments will become severely expensive.

In February 2016, the Government has removed customs duty exemption for 76 life-saving medicines that need to be imported. This ill-advised move works against the concept of affordable healthcare to all. The centre must take two quick steps: a) Complete duty exemption for all life-saving medicines; and b) in tune with the Make in India concept, permit MNC pharma companies to manufacture such medicines in India and make them available for domestic consumption. These will provide the needed logistical and financial relief to lakhs of patients. If this is not done 'Affordable Healthcare' will remain just an empty slogan, with no political will to make life saving drugs available to those who are in dire need of them at affordable cost. 
(Visit Dinesh Kamath's Blog: dkamath.blogspot.in)