Guwahati: The makers of Dolo-650, Micro Labs Limited, a pharmaceutical business with headquarters in Bengaluru, called the accusations against them “baseless and wrong” on Friday.
The company denied charges that it had given doctors freebies worth Rs 1000 crore to advertise its Dolo-650 tablets by asserting that during the height of the Covid-19 outbreak, the company transacted business worth approximately Rs 350 crores.
Executive vice president of Micro Labs Limited Jayaraj Govindaraju stated to ANI, “It is unrealistic for any corporation to invest Rs 1000 crore on the promotion of a brand that did 350 crores in the Covid year. Additionally, when Dolo 650 is included in NLEM.
He added that other other firm products, in addition to Dolo-650, were also frequently used throughout the epidemic. Not only did additional COVID regimen medications, like vitamin C and vitamin combinations, perform exceptionally well during COVID, the man claimed.
The issue was described as a “serious issue” by the Supreme Court of India on Thursday. Based on the findings of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) about the distribution of freebies to encourage doctors to prescribe pharmaceuticals, an NGO brought the entire problem to light.
The SC requested a response from the Centre on the PIL asking for guidelines holding pharmaceutical corporations accountable for providing freebies to doctors as an inducement within 10 days.
It was revealed to a bench made up of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna that the producers of the Dolo-650 mg tablet had spent Rs 1,000 crores on giveaways to get doctors to prescribe their anti-fever medication to patients.
According to senior attorney Sanjay Parikh, speaking on behalf of the Federation of Medical Sales Representatives Association of India, the CBDT accused the business of giving away such gifts to doctors worth almost Rs 1,000 crores to induce them to prescribe the medication.
It is a “severe concern,” according to Justice Chandrachud, and even he received the identical tablet during Covid.
In order to prevent such activities, Dr. Chandra Gulati, Editor of Monthly Index of Medical Specialties (MIMS), stated that not only drug formulations but also their molecules should be subject to pricing control.
According to him, there are around 2000 molecules in India, and only a third of them are regulated, allowing businesses to choose their own prices. The issue is that the formulation, such as whether paracetamol is 500, 600, or 125 milligrammes, is subject to price restriction whereas the basic salt is not. The issue would be solved if the cost of paracetamol was under control, but that’s not how it is.
“The issue is that some paracetamol dosages—for example, 500 mg—are subject to price control, but 650 mg is not. so that they can charge a higher premium for the medicine “Gulati tacked on.
Kanav Nangia, a medication distributor in Delhi, claimed that although Crocin and Dolo-650 have comparable prices, Dolo-650 has a higher distribution commission. The distributor stated that despite the viral Fever and COVID, there is still a high demand for the medication.
When asked to answer to these, Govindraju asserted that it was conceivable since the manufacturer had lowered the distribution rates.