Why 80 percent of drugs prescribed by doctors in India are now banned

A survey conducted by eMediNexus revealed that
nearly 80% of Indian doctors prescribed drugs from
the recently banned list of 344 drugs.

The survey which was conducted to gauge the
sentiment of 4,892 doctors, also concluded that up
to 40 per cent of doctors disagreed with the
government’s justification for the ban.

The survey further revealed that a quarter of doctors felt their reputation would be negatively impacted. Over 75
per cent of surveyed doctors also opined that at
least one of the drugs should not have been
banned, and a third felt there should be exceptions
to drug bans, like in the United States. Codeine and
Nimesulide combinations were the main exceptions
to the ban that doctors felt should have been made.

The healthcare firm conducted the survey on March
15 and March 16 to understand the impact of the
ban on the medical community. Four of ten
respondents labelled the ban “unnecessary”.   

The All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists wrote to the Drug Controller General of India asking them to reconsider the ban. The Centre has banned those drugs that contain more than two formulas or
ingredients. “Why do we need to give a drug for
fever when the patient just has a cold. These
combinations were only developing resistance,” said
a senior doctor from a medical college. Around 60%
doctors in the survey supported the government’s
ban, reports The Hindustan Times .

According to a report by Biotechin.Asia , while the
government is involved in setting up capacity for
healthcare, medical education, and operations, it is
also a key regulator of the sector. This is against a
backdrop of a nation with a significantly larger
disease burden than most globally, and hence is a
major responsibility. Doctors and pharmaceutical
manufacturers are the main stakeholders directly
impacted by any drug bans, but doctors themselves
are responsible for the dispensing of medicines to
the population.
“As a healthcare advocacy platform, we felt that it
was important to conduct this survey to understand
the sentiments of doctors who are directly affected
by the ban. The results were split with 60%
supporting the ban and 40% finding it an
unnecessary move. Given the significant healthcare
burden in our country, educating patients and
doctors about the safety and efficacy of commonly
used medicines is crucial so that they can take
informed decisions. Our endeavor is to provide
doctors with the last 24 hours in medicine, keeping
them informed about the latest clinical
developments globally,” said Amit Sh arma and
Nilesh Aggarwal, co-Founders of eMediNexus .