Lack of awareness about generic drugs leading to rising healthcare costs among public: Experts

Hyderabad, December 23, 2021:

Lack of awareness about the availability of generic medicines at the medical shops and pharmacies is forcing common public to spend more on branded medicines, because of which people are facing the brunt of increasing healthcare costs, opined pharmacy experts from Hyderabad.

Most of the experts from the pharmacy profession observed that in India there are thousands of pharma companies which are manufacturing different varieties of generic medicines for various diseases and therapeutic uses and exporting low cost high quality medicines to the world. However, it is ironic that despite India being a global pharmacy of generic medicines, the people in this country are not able to avail the same good quality low cost medicines and they are spending hugely on buying branded and imported medicines.

According to Arugonda Sridhar, president, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Medical Shops Association, there are three kinds of medicinal brands available in the market. “For treating same disease the pharma companies are manufacturing branded medicines, generic medicines and branded generic medicines. All these three varieties of medicines meant to treat same disease are available in the market at different prices. Branded medicines are available at higher costs, while banded generics are available at medium costs, while generic medicines are available at comparatively lower costs. However, their efficacy and quality to treat the disease is all same. But the common public are not aware of this truth and there is no proper channel to disseminate the facts to the public.

This is creating confusion among the public. Many people feel that low cost generic medicines are not of quality and because of which their prices are lower and due to this apprehension most of the people buy only costly branded medicine and leading heavy healthcare costs among the public”.

But in fact, the generic medicines which are available at low cost also have the same medical formula similar to that of branded generics and branded medicines. Since there is no proper awareness, people tend to spend more on branded medicines and incurring heavy healthcare costs. In my opinion, the state and central governments must take up continuous campaigning on the issue and must create awareness among the public observed Sridhar.

He also felt that the government must allow the pharma companies to produce only two kinds of medicines, one is branded and the other is generic, this will remove confusion among the public and help them take a decision to either go for branded or generic medicines.

Giving more information on generic medicines, Koteshwar Rao, former drug inspector said that earlier the state government in Telangana had come up with hundreds of generic pharmacies in the state. However, eventually the supervision on these medical stores has come down. Most of these pharmacies are selling branded medicines and reaping more profits as against their goal of supplying low cost medicines to the public. PharmaBiz