The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has barred medical practitioners and doctors from writing the brand names of medicines in prescriptions, to shut down the Pharmaceuticals bribing practice in Pakistan.
The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) issued a letter in this regard on Saturday, that read:
“It is unlawful for doctors to write the names of the manufacturers of medicines in their prescriptions. Instead, doctors can now only write the generic formulas of medicines. And medical store owners cannot sell medicine without prescriptions and pharmacists. Moreover, the sale of drugs should not be allowed anywhere without a prescription, while the prescription should be given only by a registered doctor, and it is mandated to make availability of a graduate pharmacist at every medical store for the sale of medicines.”
The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has also issued a code of conduct for pharmaceutical companies, that read:
“Financial incentives and expensive gifts to doctors will be considered bribes. Pharmaceuticals are prohibited from making cash payments to doctors. They will not be allowed to pay for doctors’ foreign tours under the guise of “medical or scientific conferences” without a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from the DRAP. The decision had been taken on the basis of multiple complaints about doctors’ habit of prescribing the brand names of medicines that were received through the Prime Minister’s Performance Delivery Unit.”
A similar circular the DRAP (Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan) issued in May this year, that read:
“It is a common practice that the private, as well as government hospitals’ doctors, write the ‘brand name’ of medicine in their prescriptions with an expensive price. The patients become overburdened to purchase expensive medicines of a specific brand”.
