Re: Proliferation of non essential medicines @Dr. Santosh

[Guest guest]

Dear Dr. Santosh

Thank you for sharing valuable information

to this discussion.

There are several

reasons for survival of so many non essential medicines in India. Incentives

to buy large quantities of prescription drugs have become commonplace in India, where

thousands of drug manufacturers compete for shelf space and the country's

half-million pharmacists exert an unusual amount of clout.

Pharmacists in the U.S. and other

developed countries have little influence over the volume of prescription-drug

sales. There, the marketing push usually targets doctors, the main legal conduit

for prescription drugs.

In India, many

patients are too poor or too busy to see a doctor and often rely on local

pharmacists for medical advice. As a result, powerful drugs are routinely, and

illegally, sold over the counter. For pharmaceutical companies, offering profit

incentives to pharmacies serves a variety of purposes: to introduce a new

brand, to liquidate a slow-moving batch of drugs, to book more sales at the end

of a financial quarter, or to push competing brands off the shelves.

Regards,

Dr. Mangesh

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