The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has expressed concerns over a notification issued by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) that has directed doctors and medical practitioners to prescribe generic names of medicines rather than their brand names.
Reacting to the development on Wednesday, the Secretary-General of the PMA (Center), Dr. SM Qaisar Sajjad, condemned the move, noting that such directives are beyond the domain of the DRAP. He said,
The DRAP has exceeded its authority, which is unlawful.
He maintained that the government should have consulted all the concerned stakeholders before formulating such a policy.
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Dr. Sajjad revealed that the Director of the DRAP, Dr. Abdul Rashid, who had issued the notification, is also a representative of the Pakistan Pharmacists Association (PPA) and is going to contest the PPA elections in the near future. He stated, “It is clearly a conflict of interest”.
The PMA officials believe that this notification will not benefit the general public but will open the doors of corruption for medical stores.
They will sell the product of their choice for more profits.
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Dr. Qaiser said that the DRAP’s move will establish a symbiotic relationship between the chains of sellers and will never benefit the public. Additionally, the decision will also pave the way for substandard medicines that are already being sold freely in the market.
He has urged the government to address the following concerns of the PMA before implementing the generic prescription policy.
The Director-General of the PMA has suggested the regularization of pharmaceutical companies for quality, efficacy, and standardized medicine. Furthermore, the pricing and cost approval by the drug regulator should also be on merit, he added.
He also suggested that the prices of the same generic medicines of different companies should be the same and that medical stores and pharmacies should have full-time qualified pharmacists.
Since the policy of generic medicine had failed in 1976, the government should study the causes of the failure and rectify them.
“In the present situation, the PMA rejects the notification and demands the government to withdraw it immediately,” he stated.
In UK only few medicines with brand name are prescribed if their effect is different otherwise the medicine is generic drug.
Medicines must be prescribed with generic formula names. It’s indeed a good move to restricts the pharmacists and doctors for promoting specific brands.