WEB DESK |New Delhi |
BJD MP Bhartruhari Mahtab has demanded the government to institute a probe into the efficacy of generic drugs.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha on Friday Mahtab cited a recent book, which, according to him, claimed that Indian domestic drug manufacturers were not producing quality generic drugs. “I, therefore, urge this government to initiate an inquiry on such claims, be it in favour of generic medicines or what has been reported in this book, and bring the truth in the public domain at the earliest as the matter pertains to health of citizens of our country,” he said.
The book, he said, “has revealed a scary truth behind generic drugs in India on the basis of 20,000 US Food and Drug Administration documents and interviews with over 240 people. It is revealed in that book that a large number of generic drugs manufactured in India are actually ineffective and a few even harmful. Often generic drug manufacturers produce medicines of higher quality for European and American markets, where regulation is very tight, whilst blithely selling inferior and ineffective drugs in India.”
He added, “We have great faith in generic medicines. Whenever I take a generic medicine for a certain disease, I believe that medicine will cure me. But after reading this book, after knowing about the investigation that has been done, I now doubt whatever be the medicine I am taking, especially the generic medicine.”