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Govt urged to introduce generic names of medicines

Recorder Report

Lahore: The Pakistan Chemists Retailers Association (PCRA) has suggested to the government to abolish brand names of medicines and introduce generic names, so that monopoly of the multinational pharmaceutical companies can be curtailed in this way.

PCRA Chairman Ishaq Mayo said here on Friday that with the introduction of generic names the prices of medicines can be brought down by 50 percent. That can also help save the precious foreign exchange, he added.

Mayo claimed that due to the wrong policies of the previous government, the pharmaceutical market, with a capitalisation of about Rs 4.4 billion, had to depend 98 percent on the foreign pharmaceutical industries.

According to WHO's approved list of 250 essential drugs, 90 percent of the diseases in the country can be cured by the use of these drugs. However, the country has over 26,000 registered medicines and companies are spending millions of rupees on promotion of their products. So that, the burden has to be borne by the poor, he added.

The PCRA chairman has appealed to the Chief Executive to evolve a solid policy to take advantage of the Chinese technology for the production of life-saving drugs.