E-DRUG: Essential drugs& human rights (3)
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dear E-druggers
One point which should be examined whether govt policies like price control
are affecting production of essential drugs. The situation in India is
pathetic. Most of the companies will produce medicines which are not in
price control. Medicines required to fight kala azar or goitre are hardly
produced. Our govt created and successfully destroyed public sector
production of drugs which could have solved the problem. Let us realise the
industry does not think beyond maximising shareholder wealth. Human rights
and essential drugs hardly matter to them.
regards
V.Bhava Narayana
Editor
Pharmed Trade News
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E-DRUG: Essential drugs & human rights(4)
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Dear Editor,
Pharmed Trade News
You are very right. Govt has targeted drugs from EDL for price fixation often ignoring the practical aspect of production or importation. It is mostly left to a public sector company turned nothing more than a green pasture for incompetent and corrupt employee. Ultimately this is an extinct category already. What ever are surviving do so in a shameful state at the expenses of taxpayers money. Not a single objective is met. If this is so why let such parasite to survive any longer? Private sector would not put hands on products in EDL mostly those for which price ceiling exists. If access to drugs in EDL is not to be addressed through licensing mechanism any longer what on earth is the rational for it?
Private sector do not make cheap drugs, every next second public sector company rather their employee keep on absorbing every bit of taxpayers or burrowed money injected in a periodic basis then what is the solution to have access to drugs in EDL especially in a situation where patient has to manage their illness from out-of-pocket expenditures. Is this means failure to address the practical implementation of EDL in practice?
I give you one example to prove that EDs have indirect price also.
I am characterizing a trend associated to EDs and would not consider any further details. A company with some essential products survives by meeting the deficit from periodic burrowing. Govt let company burrow some Rs 30 million about a year ago as working capital for doing hardly Rs 100 million turnover. From this, there is no loan repayment or payment of neither any interest nor any upgrade in infrastructure. This capital is completely absorbed (less on salary but more on greased hands) by the employee (mostly incompetent arrived from backdoor) and now they pressed govt either to let them have more burrowing or dispose a part of land to generate the capital or else face the street show. For them the only important thing is the continuity of the show so that employees keep on rolling their greased hands. They have something like 300 million old debts, which swells by some 14% (!!! when production sector has opportunity to burrow around 5 - 8%) annually. There is no debt-serving plan. All lenders have eye on their centrally located land. If one adds that cost in every tablet or capsule they produce (mostly contaminated due to poor working condition and lack of GMP compounded by the mob mentality of mostly general category staff without any aptitude and attitude for pharmaceutical manufacturing), the cost would not be any less than any costly brand, produced by a GMP compliant company. Is not this an indirect cost of EDs?
No one is available to shoulder the blame; government thinks they are doing this in the name of people's access to inexpensive medicine for distribution to health institutions (more as lobby for people's vote) and the DRA thinks it is a government company so it is none of their business (or else fear the risk of losing headship). Some low cost low volume EDs (lifesaving category) are either unavailable or the most expensive in black market. In lack of economy of scale, and often set price at lower side, it is shown that EDs may not be feasible to manufacture. All this means that the so-called inexpensive EDL are practically very expensive. If aspects like cost, quality, access are compromised what remains there except the political vis-à-vis human right dimension of EDL?
Regards
Balkrishna Khakurel
**please add your affiliation next time!
bkhakurel@yahoo.com