In the wake of the Ranbaxy scandals (see this earlier post), multinational pharma is predicting doom for India’s generics industry. This well-written piece by former Canadian politician (and former PhRMA staffer) Chris Ward comes from the latest Pharmaceutical Executive. You would not expect Ward to take a charitable view but he gives a foretaste of the arguments that the MNCs will be making in Europe and the US. It’s also the argument that the MNCs are increasingly making in India: it’s worth paying a premium for American regulation. In the end, this may be what forces the government’s hand in strengthening the public perception of rigorous overview by India’s Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation and the Drugs Controller General of India.
Sounds very ominous as the Govt plans to make Doctors prescribe generic drugs to patients instead of Prescription drugs. This is enough business to keep these unscrupulous drug manufacturers in business even if the revenue due to curbs from substandard drugs force countries to ban these Indian generic drugs. V bad times for the sick in India and our regulators will not protect the unsuspecting consumers