LUDHIANA: Irked by the alleged derogatory statement made by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi in London where he spoke about an alleged nexus between Indian doctors and pharmaceutical companies, the doctors of the
Indian Medical Association (IMA) Ludhiana held a rally at IMA house on Tuesday. A delegation of doctors also met the deputy commissioner Pradeep Agrawal and handed over a memorandum to him against him.
Prime Minister’s remarks that doctors prescribe only branded medicines because of their nexus with pharmaceutical firms have left the doctors disappointed. The doctors said that IMA has already declared its support for the use of generic drugs. The only hitch is the issue of quality assurance. The current level of quality testing by the government was less than 1% of the total drugs manufactured. In such a state of affairs, the doctors cannot betray the confidence of the patients and support the populist posturing of the government. India has a robust price control policy for drugs and the government allows a huge profit margin in the pharmaceutical industry. Moreover, the government is allowing the pharmaceutical companies to price the same drug categorised under different names with different profit margins. They said that doctors of this country are in no way in control of the price of drugs or stents.
The city doctors also expressed disappointment over the remarks made by the Prime Minister, which they believe show Indian doctors in poor light. Dr Arun Gupta president IMA Ludhiana, Dr Manoj Sobti, past president IMA, Punjab, Dr Saroj Aggarwal, secretary, IMA, Ludhiana, and many others expressed their views during the rally at IMA House.