TURA: A Garo Hills-based student welfare organisation, the A’chik Youth Welfare Organisation (AYWO), has urged the state government to ensure supply of generic medicines and drugs in all government hospitals and health centres to help reduce medical costs for patients and their families.
The pharmacological effects of generic drugs are the same as those of their branded counterparts, except that they are far cheaper.
The AYWO, in a memorandum to the chief minister said that government hospitals and health centres have so far not taken advantage of the availability of the generic medicines in the market. As a result, patients are being recommended branded drugs which are more expensive.
Branded drugs are more expensive because of the higher initial costs to develop, market and sell. On the other hand, generic drug makers incur less cost to make the ones produced by the branded drug makers.
The AYWO pointed out that several drugs recommended for patients in hospitals are highly priced due to their brand value.
