Generic versus brand medicines
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Md. Nizamuddin
The rising cost of health care affects the common people of Bangladesh. One of the main drivers of health costs is the rising cost of brand prescription drugs. Pharmaceuticals are an important part of health care.
Medications can improve quality of life, enhance health, and prevent costly hospitalisations. Health care practitioners must educate themselves about appropriate, less expensive alternatives to brand name medications, including generic drugs.
It is time, Bangladesh starts producing cheaper, generic drugs at home Many pharmaceuticals companies engage medical representatives to bribe doctors to prescribe their brand medicines to patients. It can end up the patients paying high prices for medicines. Being misled by some pharmacies, the patients have to buy more expensive brand drugs. Actually, generic drugs are cheaper because the manufacturers cannot mislead the patients with so many brand names.
The government should encourage production of generic drugs in Bangladesh so that the low income population could afford most drugs. The government could buy and distribute such drugs through government hospitals. The drug policy of Bangladesh could be amended suitably under the patent law to encourage the production and the quality of generic drugs. Bangladesh could, in this respect, follow Brazil, now a major producer of generic drugs. Even the small pharmaceutical industries in Bangladesh can produce generic drugs at low cost. Competition from these generic rivals will force originators to reduce the brand medicine prices.
The government needs to evaluate the matter to take supportive policy to produce generic medicines at home. It would help the poor in Bangladesh buy medicines at comparatively lower prices.
The writer can be reached at Email: rapidbd@yahoo.com
The rising cost of health care affects the common people of Bangladesh. One of the main drivers of health costs is the rising cost of brand prescription drugs. Pharmaceuticals are an important part of health care.
Medications can improve quality of life, enhance health, and prevent costly hospitalisations. Health care practitioners must educate themselves about appropriate, less expensive alternatives to brand name medications, including generic drugs.
It is time, Bangladesh starts producing cheaper, generic drugs at home Many pharmaceuticals companies engage medical representatives to bribe doctors to prescribe their brand medicines to patients. It can end up the patients paying high prices for medicines. Being misled by some pharmacies, the patients have to buy more expensive brand drugs. Actually, generic drugs are cheaper because the manufacturers cannot mislead the patients with so many brand names.
The government should encourage production of generic drugs in Bangladesh so that the low income population could afford most drugs. The government could buy and distribute such drugs through government hospitals. The drug policy of Bangladesh could be amended suitably under the patent law to encourage the production and the quality of generic drugs. Bangladesh could, in this respect, follow Brazil, now a major producer of generic drugs. Even the small pharmaceutical industries in Bangladesh can produce generic drugs at low cost. Competition from these generic rivals will force originators to reduce the brand medicine prices.
The government needs to evaluate the matter to take supportive policy to produce generic medicines at home. It would help the poor in Bangladesh buy medicines at comparatively lower prices.
The writer can be reached at Email: rapidbd@yahoo.com