The Gazette of India on 2nd August 2023, notified the National Medical Commission of registered medical practitioner Regulations, 2023.
The regulation highlights that the prescription of the drugs should only be done by their generic name and not by the brand name. The sponsoring of the medical conferences and seminars by the pharmaceutical and health allied companies, for the doctors, has been put embargo on.
This regulation received a lot of backlash from the practitioners as well as the pharmaceuticals, where it was said to be lacking consultation and speculation over the quality of generic drugs in India.
After multiple consultations took place, the regulation has been in abeyance since 23rd August 2023.
The regulation gave fuel to the embargo conundrum, where it could not clarify whether the doctors are not allowed to attend the seminars or the pharmaceuticals are barred from sponsoring.
Due to this, several conferences that were in effect were canceled with the coming of the regulations. These seminars are important for medical education and research and if they do not receive ample funds, it will hamper the research.
As per the regulation, if the practitioners do not follow the diktat of the generic medicines, then they can face the suspension of their license for one month, but the practitioners criticized this by citing quality concerns.
On the positive, the regulation settled, the debate between the Hippocratic Oath and the Charakha Shapath by adopting the physician’s pledge whi is also known as the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Geneva.
Written By: Shianjany Pradhan (@SHIANJANYPRADHAN)
