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| Wednesday, 9 July 2003 |
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by Bharatha Malawaraarachchi While there are frequent public complaints about the cost of drugs the use of generic drugs has grown in scale worldwide including Sri Lanka due to its quality and effectiveness. "Good quality medicine can be obtained at an affordable price by supply of good quality generic medicines, says Dr. Priyadarshani Galappatthy, Senior Lecturer in Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine at the University of Colombo. Clearing misconception about generic medicines, Dr. Galappatthy said several quality testing studies in Sri Lanka had shown that there is no consistent quality difference between drugs sold under brands and generic products. In one study, six registered products had fallen short of standard in potency - out of these, three were generics and others were preparations under brands. Eleven tablets and three suspensions were subjected to this study which was conducted on five parameters of quality which includes identification, dosage uniformity, disintegration time, dissolution rate and potency. All the products had met the British Pharmacopoeial standards in four parameters. "Therefore, generic prescribing should be encouraged for both quality and cost effectiveness, added Dr. Galappatthy. She said, health systems in UK, Germany, France, Austalia and USA are now giving preference to generics." Patients are reimbursed only for the cost of generics in those countries and if they want to buy a branded drug, the difference has to be paid by them." She said, the rate of generic prescription in the UK has increased from 35 per cent in 1985 to 69 per cent in 1999 while in USA, 50 per cent of prescription are generics. While explaining that there are good quality drugs even in Sri Lanka, Dr. Galappatthy stressed that more steps should be taken to educate patients on the drugs available in the country. " Unless quality medicines are provided at reasonable cost, when health is restored the patients will be financially drained." She said the branded drugs are expensive as it has to cover all costs of drug development and aims at making maximum profits before the patent period is over. " After the patent period is over, other manufacturers too can produce the drug and the price comes down due to competition between products. Therefore, Dr. Galappatthy said the confidence of both parties - prescribers and the patients about generics should be increased as still some are having unfounded doubts about quality of generics. |
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