Drug brand names in prescriptions banned

Islamabad : The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has stopped medical practitioners from writing brand names of drugs in prescriptions.

In a circular, the DRAP said it was unlawful for doctors to write the names of medicine manufacturers in their prescriptions.

“It is a common practice that the private as well as government hospitals’ doctors write the ‘brand name’ of a medicine in their prescriptions with expensive price.

“The patients become overburdened to purchase expensive medicines of a specific brand,” it said.

The DRAP said in future, medical practitioners would write generic formulas of medicines instead of their brand names.

It added that the Prime Minister’s Performance Delivery Unit had received several complaints that the doctors suggest brand names of medicines in their prescriptions.