Unhealthy prescription

Promoting generics is the wrong way to address a problem

The National Medical Commission’s (NMC’s) regulation stipulating that doctors prescribe only generic drugs, failing which they would be liable to be penalised, represents a flawed diagnosis of a chronic problem. The stricture on generic prescriptions has been in place since 2002; having been observed mostly in the breach, the NMC has sought to give teeth to the rule by adding penal provisions that could include suspension of the licence. The NMC has posited this as a pro-patient move, arguing that generic drugs — those that have the same ingredient as an equivalent brand-name drug and offer the same effect —