In violation of the Hippocratic Oath taken by medical practitioners, the nexus between doctors and pharmaceutical companies continues unabashedly, with doctors prescribing branded medicines based on a higher rate of commission instead of taking into account the quality of medicines. Doctors are not supposed to prescribe anything but generic names of drugs. They keep experimenting with drugs on a trial-and-error basis making guinea pigs out of patients.
Dr E. Sai Prasad, former honorary secretary general of Indian Medical Association said, “In the absence of any check on the nexus between pharmaceutical companies and doctors, such practices exist widely and lot of lacunae prevail. However, doctors aren’t supposed to prescribe any branded drugs to patients, but prescribe generic names only. When for a greater commission, they prescribe drugs from a lesser known company, chances are high that quality may be compromised. Again, repeatedly changing drugs if one set of medicines fails to work rapidly can be detrimental to patients, who can develop resistance to the antibiotics.”
Dr C. Hemanth, senior general physician, Yashoda Hospital added, “One of the reasons for doctors prescribing branded drugs is the non-availability of generic drugs on wider scale. Compared to thousands of drug stores in cities, there are hardly one or two generic drug stores or Jeevandhara stores.”