When a pharma company invest & develop any new drug & earn patent rights for it, then is called branded drug(BD). The duplicates of branded drugs are known as generic drugs. They have following differences:
- Production: Only Company with patent rights are allowed to manufacture Branded Drug. Once patent lapses, other companies are allowed to produce generic drugs.
- Cost: Unlike generic drugs, branded drugs incur high cost due to high investment research & development.
- Ingredients: The active ingredient (the one which cure the disease) of both drugs are same but the differs in colour, shape or taste
Affordable, effective & easy drug access important for "universal healthcare”. So, India has decided to bring a law for doctors to prescribe generic medicines which has certain issues:
- Implementation: Lower awareness and corruption have given rise nexus between Doctors chemists & pharma sector. So, public awareness via digital media along surveillance mechanism to curb nexus
- International pressure: Big western pharmaceutical lobbies may back stringent IPR rigme & compulsory licensing. They may blame India to breach TRIPS agreement and drag into WTO. But recent UN report has given precedence to human rights over patent rights which support India's move for affordable generic price to improve health care
- Supply side challenge: India is import driven country for active pharmaceutical ingredient and already facing challenge of substandard quality of generic drugs. Along with this current move may reduce FDI inflow in pharm sector and slowdown research & development in domestic pharma companies. However, India has taken steps like ‘India Pharma & India Medical Device 2017’ and new IPR policy that offer incentive & ease of doing business in India. India should adopt stricter accreditation and inspection rules for generic drugs.
