Govt may announce new labelling rules to promote generic medicines

In a bid to make low cost drugs cheaper the government is planning a new move which may make it compulsory for the pharma cos to carry the names of generic drugs in letters that are larger than the font size of the brand name, Mint reported.

The Government will probably make it mandatory for cos to have the name of the drug in letters which are two font sizes larger than the brand name.

The notification of this announcement is expected soon. Once that happens, violations will be punishable by law.

Fixed dose combinations (FDCs) of vitamins and drugs containing three or more drugs will not have to follow the above mentioned rule.

Where will these rules apply?

“For vitamins and FDCs containing three or more drugs, the brand name or the trade name shall be written in brackets below or after the proper name. The rest of the packs of drugs shall carry the proper name of the drug or fixed dose combination drug at least two fonts larger than the brand name or the trade name,” Mint said quoting an anonymous source.

The government said it wants to break the ‘doctor-big pharma’ chain and wants the doctors to promote medicines and not brand names.

What does the National Health Policy say?

This is an important move because according to WHO, India has made the list of countries with “highest-out-of-pocket” spending on healthcare. According to the National Health Policy, about 63 million people are driven into poverty due to burdening health care bills.