{"id":207514,"date":"2022-09-23T20:26:36","date_gmt":"2022-09-23T14:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?page_id=207514"},"modified":"2022-09-27T11:46:22","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T06:16:22","slug":"answered-highlight-the-graveness-of-the-doctor-drugmaker-nexus-in-india-what-measures-are-required-to-keep-this-nexus-at-bay","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answered-highlight-the-graveness-of-the-doctor-drugmaker-nexus-in-india-what-measures-are-required-to-keep-this-nexus-at-bay\/","title":{"rendered":"[Answered] Highlight the graveness of the doctor- drugmaker nexus in India. What measures are required to keep this nexus at bay?"},"content":{"rendered":"<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"616\"><strong>Introduction:\u00a0<\/strong>Contextual introduction.<br \/>\n<strong>Body:\u00a0<\/strong>Explain the graveness of the doctor- drugmaker nexus in India. Also write some measures to improve this.<br \/>\n<strong>Conclusion<\/strong>: Write a way forward.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Drug firms offer freebies in cash and kind to physicians to incentivise them to prescribe \u2018their drugs\u2019. Further, Doctors are\u00a0<strong>utilized for reputation-building exercises.<\/strong> Doctors have a commanding position and patients know little about the medicine. Patients will consume whichever medicine is prescribed. This unequal situation gets exploited.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Graveness of the doctor- drugmaker nexus:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Unethical drug promotion<\/strong> <strong>adversely influences doctors\u2019 prescription attitudes<\/strong>and<strong>\u00a0harm human health<\/strong>\u00a0by over-use, prescription of higher doses etc.\u00a0For instance, during COVID-19, many doctors prescribed dolo-650 instead of the usual 500 mg tablet.<\/li>\n<li>This causes a\u00a0<strong>severe financial stress for patients\u00a0<\/strong>as doctors would be inclined to prescribe a branded drug rather than the cheaper generic version.<\/li>\n<li>It is\u00a0<strong>against the spirit of competition<\/strong>and can jeopardize the survival of small pharma companies which lack in financial resources in comparison to the big players.<\/li>\n<li>It induces the doctor to work in the interests of the company and not the patient which\u00a0<strong>erodes patient\u2019s trust on doctors<\/strong>and the entire medical system.<\/li>\n<li>It has resulted in <strong>unprecedented rise in the irrational prescriptions of drugs,<\/strong> such as cough syrups, digestives and cognitive drugs that do not have any scientifically proven therapeutic merit.<\/li>\n<li>It <strong>pushes costly medicines over the generic versions <\/strong>that are priced around 40%-50% less than the branded medicines.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Measures:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Making the Uniform Code for Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) a\u00a0<strong>legally binding code of ethics<\/strong> and should\u00a0<strong>face the<\/strong><strong> same penal action as is mentioned in the Indian Penal Code<\/strong>for bribery and other similar unethical practices<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mandatorily periodic disclosures of payments <\/strong><strong>made by companies<\/strong>towards doctors and professional bodies, directly or indirectly via other parties.\u00a0It should be accessible to the public and include the amount, purpose of expenditure, and the party paid.<\/li>\n<li>A <strong>mandatory ethical marketing code<\/strong> will define boundaries for drugmakers and to prevent freebies from being masqueraded as product-related or educative material.<\/li>\n<li>To have <strong>special laws <\/strong>or provisions to prevent the corruption of pharma companies.<\/li>\n<li>The Government should consult all stakeholders, National Medical Commission, FMRAI, Doctors Associations and Pharma Companies etc. to establish a comprehensive framework to check such unethical practices.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is high time we had strict regulations governing the relationship between doctors and drug manufacturers\u00a0.To address this asymmetric relationship and promote ethical behaviour by Pharma companies, the\u00a0<strong>Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices<\/strong>\u00a0(UCPMP) has been drafted the Government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction:\u00a0Contextual introduction. Body:\u00a0Explain the graveness of the doctor- drugmaker nexus in India. Also write some measures to improve this. Conclusion: Write a way forward. Drug firms offer freebies in cash and kind to physicians to incentivise them to prescribe \u2018their drugs\u2019. Further, Doctors are\u00a0utilized for reputation-building exercises. Doctors have a commanding position and patients know&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answered-highlight-the-graveness-of-the-doctor-drugmaker-nexus-in-india-what-measures-are-required-to-keep-this-nexus-at-bay\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">[Answered] Highlight the graveness of the doctor- drugmaker nexus in India. What measures are required to keep this nexus at bay?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-207514","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/207514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/207514\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}