E-drug: Drugs from developing countries
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Dear e-druggers,
This is just to bring up an issue that has been exercising my mind for
years. It is an accepted fact that the emergence of manufacturers in
developing countries such as India and Brazil, as sources of quality
drugs at an affordable price, has been one of the main reasons for
the downward trend in the prices of some lifesaving drugs, such as
anti-retrovirals. Drugs from reputed firms in developing countries like
India, when supplied against international orders have never been
found wanting in quality and have been found as good as any in the
world.
What is of concern to me is the tendency to play up anecdotes
regarding procurement of low quality drugs from some developing
countries and apply the example across the board to reflect the
quality of all drugs coming from such countries. Most of the time, the
procurement of drugs in such examples has been by dubious
importers, not using normal commercial channels, directly contacting
questionable sources, which admittedly do exist. However, that
should not detract from the fact that most of the manufacturers are
producing drugs of top quality and some of these manufacturers are
being used as sources of drugs by the originator companies. These
anecdotal examples are given publicity in a manner so as to create
an unreasonable bias in a way that gives rise to suspicion that the
campaign is intentional and orchestrated, in order to keep out
competition from these legitimate manufacturers by creating a bogey
about quality.
The losers in this entire bargain are the countries for whom such
drugs are destined, who land up paying several times the cost for
drugs which they could have easily procured from developing
countries at a fraction of the cost. This is not a contention that the
control systems are perfect in developing countries but, as far as
most of the reputed manufacturers are concerned and as far as
exports go, I do not think there can be a single instance where quality
is anything other than top class. The problem is that such canards are
given heed to by international agencies responsible for drug
procurement in a number of South Asian as well as African countries,
where procurement policies sometimes are designed keep out entry
of these firms from developing countries. The key is to procure by
using normal commercial channels, through pharmaceutical
associations and ministries, and then one can never go wrong with
quality. Drug quality should not be judged by quality of imports made
by dubious importers, in turn from dubious sources in developing
countries.
Unless these misconceptions are cleared, there will always be
instances of drugs being procured at very high costs when the
identical drugs of same quality can be sourced from a firm in a
developing country at much lower prices. This a matter where I would
invite reactions from e-druggers.
Dr Srinivas
Ministry of Health
India
(In personal capacity)
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