Generic names

It is unfortunate that we never learn lessons from our history. We keep focusing on insignificant issues and ignore the real problems that our country is facing. The recent annoucement by the authorities that all prescriptions should be in generic names of drugs is one issue in question. This experiment was carried out in the 1970s too, and miserably failed. One should go through the pages of history to find out the reasons for its failure. At present, we are facing serious health issues. Our top priority should be to speed up the Covid-19 vaccination programme. Also, the authorities must take steps to reduce the prices of essential medicines and encourage the manufacturing of raw material of drugs instead of importing them from abroad at higher prices.

It is important to note that in our country, same medicines under different names are being sold by hundreds of different pharmaceutical companies with different price tags. Why can’t the authorities concerned make sure that all medicines are sold at regulated prices.

Dr Munawar Aziz

Abbottabad