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There is a lack of access to essential medicines in India despite attempts to ensure wider availability
New Delhi, August 29, 2018: The Lok Nayak Hospital – one of the centrally located government hospitals in New Delhi — has run out of third-line treatment for HIV this week. Restoring supply will take about three to four days. The state needs about 10,000 doses of the third line combination drugRaltegravir + Darunavir + Ritonavir every month. These are centrally procured for the entire country by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO). The supply issues occurred due to problems in finalizing the tender.
Recent research has revealed the shocking lack of access to essential medicines in India, despite thousands being approved in an attempt to generate wider availability. It found that despite there being multiple approved products listed in India databases, few were available in private pharmacies at a price people could afford.
Speaking about this, Padma Shri Awardee,Dr KK Aggarwal, President, HCFI, said, “In an RTI application filed in January with the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, Department of Pharmaceuticals and the Drug Controller General of India, the Heart Care Foundation of India (HCFI) requested for information on law relating to national essential medicine, government policy relating to essential medicine and list of essential devices in the country. A Standing National Committee on Medicines (SNCM) has been constituted as a result, and the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) will be appended to include Medical Devices, Disposables, Consumables, and other products as well. This will help guide safe and effective treatment of priority disease conditions; promote the rational use of the said products; optimize the available health resources of a country; and can be used by other state governments as a guide. It will also allow for uniformity in prices. What we now need is a Make in India movement in medicines and devices.”
The HCFI recently launched a campaign called Make in India for Cure in India as part of the 25th MTNL Perfect Health Mela 2018 to be held from 24th to 28th October at the Talkatora Indoor Stadium, New Delhi.
Adding further, Dr Aggarwal, who is also the Vice President of CMAAO, said, “The goal of Cure in India can be realized only if we encourage Make in India. There is a need to step up efforts for manufacturing essential medical supplies and medicines in India to avoid the kind of shortage experienced by the Lok Nayak hospital. India must become a destination for access to affordable health and cure.”
Seven steps for Government of India.
- Raise the government expenditure on health to 2.5% of GDP
- Strong overview and monitoring by DCGI and State Drug Controllers on compliance to cGMP practices in drug industry.
- Strengthen the quality assurance infrastructure to the required level so that the quality of every batch of drugs is assured.
- Deploy adequate regulatory manpower to enforce the laws regarding drugs.
- Stop over-the-counter (OTC) sale of prescription drugs without a prescription and do not allow a company to market same drug in different prices under different brands.
- Prevent quacks and alternative system from using modern medicine drugs.
- Initiate awareness movement amongst doctors and patients to buy quality affordable drugs.
HealthySoch
