ABSTRACT:
The need of an affordable but effective health care and medicines in India is of primary importance. The significance of generic medicines and their availability is not only vital in the country in the present scenario but with the cost of life-saving drugs going up every year, its noteworthiness is going to increase more and more with the passing time. It is not that nothing has been done by the governments as regards the generic drugs but whatever little has been achieved leaves a lot to be desired in order to have a notable impact. No comparative academic research has been done on the importance and cost of these low cost medicines. Looking into the importance and availability of generic medicines in India, the government must freely dole out licenses for manufacturing of the same for interested parties and the amended Patents Act, 1970 also allows for compulsory licensing facility for the same after 3 years of expiry of patent granted on any medicine in public interest and welfare. While, whatever has been done in his respect by the government has made India one of the major hubs of generic drug manufacturing and exports across the globe, yet the same fact has not been translated into benefits, advantage and convenience for the people of the country. This very fact is disheartening and discouraging. What's more disappointing is the fact that in spite of the Medical Council of India establishing it as a ‘Code of Conduct and Ethics’ for it physicians to prescribe medicines only by its generis names, floating of Jan Aushadhi Schemes for forming centers in every district for making low cost generic medicines available to people and inclusion of generic drugs in its National Health Policies, nothing constructive has been achieved as yet and the positions is very dismal and gloomy. There is no effective restriction on doctors who at large continue to prescribe branded expensive medicines for patients, there is no proper quality control on manufactured generic drugs and no bioequivalence tests are being performed on generic medicines to ensure that they are safe, equally effective as branded drugs and are safe for consumption. All these factors have not only to be looked into by the government and its related agencies but also by the legislature which needs to bring about an all-inclusive strong and potent law to ensure that not only the doctors prescribe medicines only by generic names or else face punishment, but also that the chemist, government and private hospitals keep a sufficient stock of the same for easing its availability to the people as well as provide for special centers to make generic medicines available. This would not only create general awareness among the people of the country but also would be successful in breaking the unwanted illegal pharmaceutical company-chemist-doctors nexus making profits at the cost of health of the people of the State.