Docs can no longer take gifts from pharma companies

The Medical Council of India has decided to crackdown on medical practitioners who attempt to boost their income by pitching certain retail products to patients. Coming down heavily on the nexus between doctors and pharma companies, the country's apex regulatory body for medical education said endorsing a particular drug may result in the doctor being permanently thrown out of the Council.

According to the latest rules framed by the body, a medical practitioner cannot endorse any drug or product of the industry publicly.

Any study conducted on the efficacy or otherwise of such products shall be presented through appropriate scientific bodies or published in appropriate scientific journals in a proper way. The body feels the conflict of interest inherent in recommending drugs from certain companies is too blatant to be acceptable. "In such a case, the alleged doctor may face first time censure and thereafter their name will be removed permanently from the Indian medical register or state medical register," the rule says.

Sources in the Council told Mirror that the nexus between doctors and pharma companies are widely noticed. "Many doctors refer costly medicines despite cheaper drugs being available in the market. For this they receive kickbacks from pharma companies," a source said on condition of anonymity. Sometimes medical practitioners receive kickbacks in the form of paid vacations within India and outside. The Council has also banned accepting such gifts including rail, road, air, ship and cruise tickets from any pharmaceutical or allied health care industry or their representative.

This is unethical and since patients are fleeced because they are not in a position to question doctors. "That is why a visit to a doctor comes up to 500-1,000" the source added. This has also resulted in mushrooming of medical shops. "The maximum numbers of shops that have come up in the recent past are medical shops and now you know how they survive and thrive," the source said.

Practitioners have also pulled up for accepting sponsorship from pharmaceutical companies for attending conferences, seminars, workshops and even continued medical education programme as a delegate. If expenses for such trips go beyond 10,000, the medical practitioner will be removed from the registry for three months. If expenses touch 50,000, the practitioner could be barred for six months. The doctor will be barred for a year if the expenses touch 1 lakh, and more than a year if it exceeds 1 lakh, the body said.

Reacting to the latest strictures, doctors said there will always be isolated examples of abuse. But such people and groups don't represent the entire profession. "Doctors and pharma companies work in tandem so that they get to know of the latest medicines in the market. This is not a nexus. Just because a few doctors misuse their work, every doctor should not be punished," said a doctor on condition of anonymity.

Source: http://www.bangaloremirror.com/bangalore/others/Docs-can-no-longer-take-gifts-from-pharma-companies/articleshow/51001212.cms