Plea to encourage generic drugs

The All-Kerala Chemists and Druggists Association has urged the government to encourage the marketing of life-saving medicines in generic names and not as branded ones so that patients will get them at lower prices.

AN Mohan, president of the association, pointed out that the National Drug Pricing Policy 2012 had recommended this, but it was not being implemented. He said pharmaceutical companies were marketing drugs of the same chemical substance in several brand names in order to make huge profits. Generic medicines would be far cheaper than the branded ones.

He pointed out that since the prices of anti-venom against snake bites as well as vaccines against rabies, DPT and HIV were regulated as they were on the national list of essential drugs, pharmaceutical companies had vastly reduced their production. This was because the profit margins were low. Mohan urged the governments to persuade the companies to produce more of these drugs.