SMS-based service: the prices of different brands of the same medicine available in the market.

SMS service to fix fleecing docs, cut medicine costs

Some doctors and chemists prescribe costlier brands to unsuspecting patients for their own interests

All you wanted to know about the medicine your doctor has prescribed will soon be an SMS away. A healthcare association is set to launch an SMS-based service which will provide information on any medicine, and most importantly, the prices of different brands of the same medicine available in the market.
Rajendra Pratap Gupta, president of Disease Management Association of India (DMAI), said the aim of the service is to make people aware that like any other product, even amongst medicines, there are multiple brands with varying prices, and all medicines carry the threat of side-effects.
"A doctor writes the prescription and the patient presents it to the chemist and buys the medicine. The patient
ends up paying more, as he is not aware of cheaper brands of the medicine," said Gupta. For example, multiple brands of an antibiotic like ciprofloxacin cost between Rs39 and Rs98 (for a strip of 10 tablets), while that of another common antibiotic levofloxacin cost between Rs37 and Rs475 for a strip of five tablets.
"Patients are also unaware of the adverse effects of medicines, if taken for long durations. Often, people don't know what exactly the pill is — an antibiotic, anti-viral or just a multi-vitamin. We plan to answer such queries through the SMS," Gupta said.
The service will be launched in early 2011, sometime between January and March. DMAI, a group formed by healthcare sector executives, is in talks with various mobile service providers who can deliver it at a cost-effective rate. "We don't want the service to cost the customer more than Re1 per SMS, as then more people can make use of it. Initially, the information will be provided in English and Hindi, and gradually, we will launch it in vernacular languages," said Gupta.
Dr CM Gulhati, editor of Monthly Index of Medical Specialties, a medical reference journal, said the quality of all medicines manufactured by top 50-60 manufacturers is the same, and hence there is no way a patient benefits by consuming a costlier brand. "Patients are ignorant about anything concerning medicines. Doctors and chemists take advantage of this by pushing costly brands for their own interests. No wonder then that in India, medicines make up almost 40-50% of the total healthcare expenditure."
Dr Krishnakant Dhebri, a general practitioner who runs a clinic at Charni Road, said awareness of medicines and their pricing is also needed amongst doctors. "Doctors are not justified in prescribing costly brands when cheaper good quality brands are available."
The data will be sourced from MedClick, a service which pharmacies and doctors themselves frequent for medical inputs, said Gupta. "The information will be absolutely reliable."
However, the service should not be used by consumers to self-medicate, a practice which is growing by leaps and bounds. "You have to rely on the doctor for diagnoses and should not pop pills on your own," Gupta said.
At a later stage, DMAI plans to expand the service to answer queries on various diseases.