Access to Generic Medicines Though we all have a basic idea of what generic medicines are we still struggle to find out the what stores we should look for when searching for generic drugs and if it is reliable. Laws in India specify that all medical prescriptions should give generic medicines and all pharmacies must make them available to patients. But aggressive marketing by private pharma companies, cut-throat competition and ignorance of the customers coupled with weak enforcement of rules allow private manufactures of branded medicines to make a killing through your “friendly pharmacy”. About 85% of total health expenditure in India is financed by household out-of-pocket expenditure (according to government figures) and medicines constitute 20% to 60% of total healthcare expenditure. Understanding the strain medical expenditure has on the common ...
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Regulatory bodies on Generic medicines In order to have a complete trust in Generic medicines before using them, we need to check what the regulating body for food drugs has to say about generic medicines. In India, drug manufacturing, quality and marketing is regulated in accordance with the Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940 and Rules 1945. Over the last few decades, this act has undergone several amendments. The Drugs Controller General of India , who heads the Central Drugs Standards Control Organization , assumes responsibility for the amendments to the Acts and Rules. Other major related Acts and Rules include the Pharmacy Act of 1948, The Drugs and...
India and Generic Medicines A generic drug is a medication created to be the same as an already marketed brand-name drug in dosage form, safety, strength, route of administration, quality, performance characteristics, and intended use. These similarities help to demonstrate bioequivalence, which means that a generic medicine works in the same way and provides the same clinical benefit as the brand-name medicine. In other words, you can take a generic medicine as an equal substitute for its brand-name counterpart. The term ‘generic’ word in India denotes the medicines which are marketed under a generic name. Then there is another term called ‘Branded generics’, to connote medicines which are now off patent...