New Mumbai : A case has reached the Supreme Court on allegations of distribution of free gifts of Rs 1000 crore to doctors by a pharma company that makes Dolo tablets to prescribe Dolo 650 mg for the treatment of fever.
New Delhi: A company that makes paracetamol drug 'Dolo' spent over Rs 1000 crore for gifts on doctors. A body of Medical Representative gave this information to the Supreme Court on Thursday making allegations. The drug 'Dolo' became very popular during the Kovid epidemic and was widely used. Senior advocate Sanjay Parikh, appearing for Federation of Medical and Sales Representative Association of India, told the bench, "More than Rs 1000 crore free gift has been given by Dolo company for 650mg formulation. The doctor was prescribing an irrational dosage combination. He also cited a report of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) as his source of information.
'When Kovid happened, I took the same' This (medicine) is exactly what I had at the time of Kovid.' The PIL, filed by the Federation of Medical and Sales Representative Association of India, has raised concerns over the formulation and price control of drugs being sold in India. A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna, after hearing the arguments of Sanjay Parikh, said that this is a serious issue.
The court said- 'This serious issue', also sought response from the Center "It is a serious issue," the bench said. The federation has filed a PIL seeking a direction to make pharmaceutical companies liable to give gifts to doctors as an incentive to prescribe their drugs. The petition has sought a direction from the court to give statutory backing to the Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) by the Center.
Parikh also said in his plea, "At present there is no law that prohibits such practices in the absence of any statutory basis for the UCPMP." On behalf of the petitioner, senior advocate Sanjay Parikh and advocate Aparna Bhat, making serious allegations, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and A. s. Bopanna that the market price of any tablet up to 500 mg is controlled under the government's price control mechanism. But the price of the drug above 500 mg can be decided by the manufacturer pharma company, he said. He argued that in order to ensure higher profit margins, the company distributed free gifts to physicians for prescribing Dolo-650 mg tablets.
