[rajoy123]

One of my friend works for Ranbaxy, and i emailed him this link. He called me up at midnight and was worried to the core! (The poor chap is now digging up his resume and making updations for a new job-search)

I have also shared this link with my friends and they all have gotten into 'R & D' mode. I dont even know how to react after reading the article, hope all is settled/fixed soon!

Rajoy.

[Desmosedici]

This is Shocking. I have shared as much as much as i can with my friends. This is just not done. The people managing the company should be punished.

[simply_sunny001]

Originally Posted by CaliAtenza

Problem is, they make the generic version of Lipitor here, which is used by thousands of patients here.

not anymore, from next month other companies will make Lipitor too

[CaliAtenza]

Originally Posted by manolin

I also read this a couple of days back, and main thing which stuck me was - has any indian drug inspection happened at Ranbaxy - now that this sort of stuff has been out in public. and why don't we have any sort of whistleblower system here.

Very very scary

Does India have a real body to regulate pharmaceuticals? I wasnt really aware of such a body, or is it just done by the Ministry of Health?

[download2live]

A significant part of the blame also has to go to the big shot pharma companies who price the drugs (over which they have patents) so high. The main reason they cite is that they have to recover billions of dollars which go into research.
This is the main reason Generic drug industry came up.

But the fact remains that a big part of that research uses the knowledge developed in Govt funded labs in Public Universities.
I feel that this piece of News is "funded" by some Pharma company only.

Ranbaxy gets no sympathy from me. But neither do I support the big shot Pharma companies who adopt such predatory pricing policy. If these guys had their way then the count of people who died of AIDS in Africa would have been much much higher, thanks to the price of the AIDS drug kit.

There has been a serious lobbying going on by Big shot Pharma to allow product patents and not process patents in India. I am not sure what the current status is.

[manolin]

Originally Posted by download2live

A significant part of the blame also has to go to the big shot pharma companies who price the drugs (over which they have patents) so high. The main reason they cite is that they have to recover billions of dollars which go into research.
This is the main reason Generic drug industry came up.

But the fact remains that a big part of that research uses the knowledge developed in Govt funded labs in Public Universities.
I feel that this piece of News is "funded" by some Pharma company only.

Ranbaxy gets no sympathy from me. But neither do I support the big shot Pharma companies who adopt such predatory pricing policy. If these guys had their way then the count of people who died of AIDS in Africa would have been much much higher, thanks to the price of the AIDS drug kit.

There has been a serious lobbying going on by Big shot Pharma to allow product patents and not process patents in India. I am not sure what the current status is.

This fraud is completely independent from the big pharma ip issue. This is not funded news - it is a full scale investigation by US federal agencies across jurisdictions inluding field investigations in India.

[mroptimist]

Originally Posted by CaliAtenza

Does India have a real body to regulate pharmaceuticals? I wasnt really aware of such a body, or is it just done by the Ministry of Health?

Yes we do have a body called "DCGI= Drugs Controller General of India" which comes under MOH & Family Welfare.

DCGI along with CDSCO (Central Drugs Standard Control Organization) regulate pharma companies and approval of newer drugs in India.

This is their website.
http://www.cdsco.nic.in/

[sukhoi30]

Fantastic!!! I always had the feeling that there is some level of fraud going on with several generic companies. I have experienced this with various painkillers for e.g. Crocin, Calpol, Vicks Action 500 etc. The cheaper it is, the worst is the effect of the drug. There is another fraud gradually going on in our hospitals ... i.e. the doctors prescribing generic drugs for specific illness until it becomes worse. Doctors get commission for prescribing such drugs and the patients have to make multiple visits to get cured. Poor patients have to eventually shell out more and more money.
I have routinely seen in many hospitals and clinics, the MR (Medical Representatives) spending more time with Doctors selling their products than the doctors with their patients.
Our health care system is going from bad to worse slowly and our government is blissfully unaware. It is one thing to make generic drugs available at a cheaper rate to patients but totally another to have maintain the quality and effectiveness.

[tsk1979]

The bigger shame is that for "murder" the punishment has been a mere slap on the wrist. The message is clear, do whatever you want, all you will get is a fine. If profits > fine, then what is a few dead people? After all nobody will go to Jail!

[vikrantj]

This is serious and what is more serious is total lack of any news in Indian print. I will tell my friends and relatives who are doctors about this.

[CaliAtenza]

Originally Posted by mroptimist

Yes we do have a body called "DCGI= Drugs Controller General of India" which comes under MOH & Family Welfare.

DCGI along with CDSCO (Central Drugs Standard Control Organization) regulate pharma companies and approval of newer drugs in India.

This is their website.
http://www.cdsco.nic.in/

Ah okay, good to know . But do they do any real regulation, or is another one of those rubber stamp departments?

Originally Posted by sukhoi30

Fantastic!!! I always had the feeling that there is some level of fraud going on with several generic companies. I have experienced this with various painkillers for e.g. Crocin, Calpol, Vicks Action 500 etc. The cheaper it is, the worst is the effect of the drug. There is another fraud gradually going on in our hospitals ... i.e. the doctors prescribing generic drugs for specific illness until it becomes worse. Doctors get commission for prescribing such drugs and the patients have to make multiple visits to get cured. Poor patients have to eventually shell out more and more money.
I have routinely seen in many hospitals and clinics, the MR (Medical Representatives) spending more time with Doctors selling their products than the doctors with their patients.
Our health care system is going from bad to worse slowly and our government is blissfully unaware. It is one thing to make generic drugs available at a cheaper rate to patients but totally another to have maintain the quality and effectiveness.

I remember during Internship, the drug reps used to come to the hospital everyday at around like 2 pm...sometimes they would just line up outside to sell their products. It got really annoying after a while, but i know they are just doing their job, so i had to grin and bear it.

[mroptimist]

Originally Posted by CaliAtenza

Ah okay, good to know . But do they do any real regulation, or is another one of those rubber stamp departments?

Of course not they are similar to CBI=Caged parrots.

Problem with various government control organizations in India is the same, no autonomy.

Netas control it (DCGI) and also own openly (Ex Minister for Railways Mr Bansal) pharma companies. Classic case of Conflict of Interest.

Of course I can go on & on because I am an industry insider but this is not the forum for that.

Thank You.

[avira_tk]

Originally Posted by sukhoi30

Fantastic!!! I always had the feeling that there is some level of fraud going on with several generic companies. I have experienced this with various painkillers for e.g. Crocin, Calpol, Vicks Action 500 etc. The cheaper it is, the worst is the effect of the drug. There is another fraud gradually going on in our hospitals ... i.e. the doctors prescribing generic drugs for specific illness until it becomes worse. Doctors get commission for prescribing such drugs and the patients have to make multiple visits to get cured. Poor patients have to eventually shell out more and more money.
I have routinely seen in many hospitals and clinics, the MR (Medical Representatives) spending more time with Doctors selling their products than the doctors with their patients.
Our health care system is going from bad to worse slowly and our government is blissfully unaware. It is one thing to make generic drugs available at a cheaper rate to patients but totally another to have maintain the quality and effectiveness.

Generic drugs are life savers despite what people might make of Indian Pharma from this single instance, the FDA approach was to have the fox guard the hen house and they claim the fox wasn't doing his job. The fact is, this came to light because of the efforts of the ex-employee who was protected and rewarded for his efforts, similar facilities are hardly available here. The FDA is as much part of the problem as Ranbaxy.

Doctors don't presribe generic drugs, that is the actual fraud, they prescribe branded drugs as Big Pharma is the one that sponsors "conventions" year round for doctors and their extended family.

Foreign firms are just as guilty of similar practices, if Ranbaxy can manage this level of damage control, imagine the media silence bigger firms can get. Too many respectable big pharma companies are guilty of illegally testing drugs in Africa, which is why Indian medicines are trusted there. The Chinese have flooded that market with their fakes ruining our reputation there.

[dmplog]

Originally Posted by CaliAtenza

I must warn you guys, the article is LONG!, but totally worth the read.
http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.co.../?iid=HP_River

Thanks for sharing the link / article. Though, personally, I am not too surprised by this. I always suspected that malpractices were rampant in such drug testings by pharma companies.

Originally Posted by avira_tk

Foreign firms are just as guilty of similar practices, if Ranbaxy can manage this level of damage control, imagine the media silence bigger firms can get. Too many respectable big pharma companies are guilty of illegally testing drugs in Africa, which is why Indian medicines are trusted there.

Originally Posted by iamswift

Man this is serious.
I never imagined a cinema material would come true.

A cinema already exists - a well made movie actually. This reminded me of a movie I saw some time back called - "The Constant Gardener".

[srishiva]

Even 'The Fugitive' was about pharma and drugs. Surprised no investigation was done on any impacts of such drugs on people.
Government agencies everywhere are similar.