KARACHI: Drug Regulation Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) is planning to establish a much needed ‘Code of Ethics’ for doctors and pharmaceutical companies, which will restrict direct contact between doctors and drug manufacturing companies.
It had been a well-known fact that doctors received perks in different forms from pharmaceutical companies for prescribing their particular medicines to patients.
“We are making efforts to establish an institution that would restrict direct contact between doctors and companies. If companies want to send doctors to attend conferences abroad, they would have to do that through DRAP,” DRAP CEO Dr Mohammad Aslam told Pakistan Today. “In this way, pharma companies would not be able to entice doctors to prescribe their drugs,” he added.
Those who are acquainted with the working of the health sector are well aware of the notorious practice of doctors for prescribing medicines of a certain company to receive perks.
Drug abuse, especially of antibiotics, had been reported on part of doctors, who are well-known for prescribing drugs extravagantly to meet their targets and receive special bonuses.
Dr Aslam cited the example of Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT), the brainchild of famous Dr Adeeb Rizvi, and said that a team of senior doctors from the institute took the decision of sending a doctor to attend a conference abroad after being approached by pharmaceutical companies.
“If a fourth-generation antibiotic is prescribed to a patient even when a first generation drug could have worked, then the patient would become resistant to first, second and third generation antibiotics,” Dr Aslam explained.
He said this step would hopefully reduce over prescription of drugs by doctors while prescribing medicines to patients.
