The Supreme Court on Thursday termed as a “serious issue” a matter taken up by an NGO related to CBDT’s allegations against the makers of Dolo tablets that they had given free gifts of around Rs 1,000 crore to doctors for prescribing 650 mg of anti-inflammatory drugs. were distributed. Fever reducing medicine.
Senior advocate Sanjay Parikh and advocate Aparna Bhat, appearing for the petitioner ‘Federation of Medical and Sales Representative Association of India’, told a bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice AS Bopanna that the market value of any tablet up to 500 mg controlled under it. Price control mechanism of the government but the price of the drug above 500 mg can be decided by the concerned pharma company.
Parikh alleged that to ensure higher profit margins, the Dolo tablet maker distributed free gifts to doctors for prescribing 650 mg of the drug. The advocate also said that he would like to bring more such facts to the notice of the court once the Centre’s reply is filed. “What you are saying is music in my ears. This is exactly the same medicine that I had taken recently when I had Covid recently. It is a serious issue and we will look into it,” Justice Chandrachud said. he said.
The bench then asked Additional Advocate General KM Natraj to file his reply on the petitioner’s plea in 10 days and then gave him a week’s time, after which he could file his rejoinder. It listed the matter for further hearing on September 29.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on July 13 charged manufacturers of Dolo-650 tablets with freebies worth around Rs 1,000 crore in exchange for indulging in “immoral practices” and promoting products made by them to doctors and medical professionals. was accused of doing. drug group. The Income Tax Department had made this claim on July 6 after raids on 36 premises of Micro Labs Limited based in Bengaluru in nine states.
A lawyer sought the court’s permission to file an intervention on behalf of the pharma companies, which was allowed by the court saying it would like to hear them on the issue as well. On March 11, the top court asked the Center to frame a Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practice to curb alleged unethical practices of pharma companies and ensure an effective monitoring mechanism, transparency, accountability as well as consequences of violations. Agreed to examine the petition seeking directions. ,
The top court had said that it wanted to know what the government has to say on the issue. Parikh had said that this is an important issue in the public interest.
He submitted that the pharmaceutical companies are claiming that they are not liable for punishment as the bribe takers are doctors. Parikh said the government should look into this aspect and the code should be made of a statutory nature because “we all know what happened with remdesivir injections and other drugs of those combinations”.
The top court had then asked the petitioner why a representation could not be made to the government, which Parikh said they had already done. They had said that they have been taking up the issue with the government since 2009 and until the government comes out with a code to regulate, this court may lay down some guidelines.
The petition states that the Medical Council of India (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations 2002 prescribe a code of conduct for doctors in their relations with the pharmaceutical and allied health sector industry, and provide for gifts and entertainment, travel facilities, Prohibits acceptance of hospitality. Cash or monetary grants by medical practitioners from pharmaceutical companies.
“This code is enforceable against doctors. However, this does not apply to pharmaceutical companies, leading to extreme situations where doctors’ licenses are revoked for malpractice, which is activated, encouraged, aided and abetted by pharma companies. Pharma companies become spotless,” it added.
The petition claimed that although sales are termed as promotion, in reality, doctors are getting direct or indirect benefits (in the form of gifts and entertainment, sponsored foreign trips, hospitality and other benefits) in return for increase in sales of medicines. in) are given. It states that the promotion of unethical drug may adversely affect the prescription attitude of the doctors and cause harm to human health by overuse/over-prescription of drugs, prescribing of drugs in higher dosages, longer than required Prescription of drugs for a longer period of time, prescription of more number of drugs, over-the-counter drugs and prescription of an irrational combination of drugs.
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