‘Even doctors feel generic drugs are sub-standard’
Many patients are denied affordable treatment, as they prefer to buy branded drugs that sometimes cost as much as 7 to 8 times more and deny
A 67-year-old woman in Tumakuru visited a private doctor for a chronic ailment. She was advised some expensive drugs. Even though she was short on funds and struggling to make ends meet, she set aside money to buy medication for two months. Two months later, when she ran out of money, she stopped taking the medicines and discontinued treatment.
Another woman in her fifties in K.G. Halli, Bengaluru, takes her medicine for hypertension only when ‘her legs swell’, something she has noticed happens every time her blood pressure shoots up. Once the swelling stops, she stops taking medicines, because she cannot afford them regularly.
Branded drugs sometimes cost as much as 7 to 8 times as generic drugs. But in spite of their low cost, the public remains suspicious of the effectiveness of generic medicines.
“There is a strong perception among the public, and to our surprise, even practitioners and pharmacists, that generic medicines are of sub-standard quality,” said Praveenkumar Aivalli, Research Officer, Institute of Public Health (IPH), Bengaluru. A team of researchers from IPH, including Dr. Aivalli, have conducted a three-year study on access to generic medicines for non-communicable diseases, the results of which will be published shortly.
As part of the study, three taluks in Tumakuru district were randomly chosen and around 1,000 to 1,200 houses surveyed. The team found that public awareness of generic drugs was very low and people hesitated to visit primary health centres (PHCs), preferring private hospitals even when they could barely afford to. They found a similar poor perception of generic drugs among residents in K.G. Halli, Bengaluru.ÿ Comparing figures from 2013 to 2016, the availability of drugs in PHCs had greatly improved in the period.
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