A report in a financial daily last week said that the Union ministry of chemicals & fertilizers is having a plan to set up a string of generic stores throughout the country to make available essential drugs at affordable prices. The idea is to market the drugs in their chemical names to cut down the promotional costs which form a significant part of the drug prices. As per the plan, the ministry may open generic stores in each district of the country and source drugs directly from the public sector drug units. Such an arrangement is expected to bring down marketing costs of drugs and thereby lowering the retail prices. The chemicals ministry has been trying hard to regulate the prices of essential drugs falling outside the DPCO for some time by fixing a 10 per cent cap on price hikes by pharmaceutical companies in a year. To some extend, this step is successful. But, steep price hikes of certain companies are still escaping the attention of National pharmaceutical Pricing Authority. In a recent case, an MNC has jacked up the price of its multivitamin product, Maximine Forte, by more than 300 times. The product is sold mostly in metros. It may be difficult for NPPA to track down such unwarranted price hikes of every pharmaceutical product on time and take appropriate action. There are hundreds of essential drugs used for treating cardiovascular diseases, cholesterol, diabetes, cancer, gastrointestinal problems, etc in the market which are outside price control. None of these essential drugs are brought under price control after the latest DPCO was notified in 1995. And there are wide variations in prices of same drugs having similar strengths in the market with no justification for their higher prices than the competing products.

The objective of the ministry to establish generic stores in a situation like this is thus laudable. But there are some major issues to be sorted out to make this initiative a successful one. First and foremost is the sourcing of drugs. The ministry has to make arrangements with the public sector drug units to manufacture adequate quantities of generic drugs belonging to major therapeutic groups and ensure their regular supplies to these stores. It has to be a very gradual process. Then, how to work out the logistics is another matter. Currently, manufacture and marketing of generic drugs is extremely limited in the country. The support of the private sector drug companies in this initiative should not be expected as they are already cribbing about low profitability. Perhaps, the most difficult task for the government will be to motivate the medical practitioners to start prescribing generic drugs. As the pharmaceutical market in the country is largely prescription driven, medical practitioners have to start the practice of prescribing generic drugs. Currently most of the general practitioners and specialists are used to prescribing brands and that too expensive ones of top companies. And there is a strong bond between pharmaceutical companies and the medical profession. Therefore, the chemicals ministry has also to get the support of the community of doctors to make this populist concept a success.