Writing the generic name of drugs in prescriptions has been customary in many developed countries for a long time. In India, it is compulsory for physicians to prescribe medicines by generic names rather than by brand names. However, no legal framework is available in Bangladesh. As a result, patients have to spend substantial amounts of money on medicine. Health costs would be significantly reduced if doctors wrote the generic names of drugs in prescriptions and if the aggressive marketing by drug manufacturing companies decreased. Simultaneously, it would be easier to bring village doctors, Ayurvedic practitioners, and salesmen under the purview of appropriate laws.
The mere promotion cost is Tk 10 billion out of the country's total medicine market of Tk 40 billion. It is, therefore, believed that if doctors write generic names in prescriptions, aggressive medicine marketing can be stopped to a large extent. In that case, bioequivalence research must be ensured. Two medical preparations are considered bioequivalent when the rate and extent of bioavailability of the active drug in such preparations are not considerably different under standard test conditions.
A physician may prescribe correctly, but drugs are often sold by shopkeepers who have only an eighth to tenth-grade education. Additionally, work must be done to reconstruct the entire health system and develop human resources. Monitoring must be ensured to verify that prescriptions are written correctly. Foreign companies will be more interested in working jointly with domestic ones if research on medicine is increased.
Dr. Md. Ruhul Amin
Senior Vice President &
Head of Agricultural Investment Division
IBBPLC
ruhul_happy01@yahoo.com