LAHORE: The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has prohibited medical practitioners from writing brand names of medicines in prescriptions.
The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) in a circular issued on Sunday said, “The doctors in their prescriptions should write the generic formula of the medicines.”
The regulatory authority in its advisory further said the DRAP has made it unlawful for doctors to write the medicine’s manufacturer’s name in their prescriptions.
according to the circular, “It is a common practice that the private, as well as government hospitals’ doctors, write the ‘brand name’ of a medicine in their prescriptions with expensive price.” The patients become overburdened to purchase expensive medicines of a specific brand,” read the circular.
“Now the medical practitioners will write generic formula instead of the brand name of a medicine,” the circular added.
“Prime Minister’s Performance Delivery Unit has received several complaints with regard to the doctor’s habit to suggest brand names of medicines in their prescriptions,” it added.
